THE LEGENDS AND THEORIESO F THE
BUDDHISTS,
CO MPARED WITH
H I S T O R Y A N D S C I E N C E
WITH INTRODUCTORY NOTICES O F THE LIFE AND SYSTEM O F
GOTAMA BUDDHA .
R. SPENCE HARDY, HON.
AUTH O R or“EASTERN (BUDDHIST ) MO NACH ISM ,
” “ A MANUAL or BUDDHISM,”n'
rc .
WILLIAMS AND NORGATE,
14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON ;
AND
20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH.
1866 .
PREFACE.
THE system attributed to Gotama Buddha is one of
the oldest beliefs in the w orld . It demands, therefore, a
place among the records of religious opinion, if for its
antiquity alone . But it has other claims upon our
attention . There is in it the germ of many of the speen
lations that are the most prominent in the shifting philo
sophies of the present day ; and it is now professed, at the
lowest computation, by three hundred millions of the
human race . The information presented in these pages
has a further importance, as the Dharmma is compara
tively unknown in England . Of this we have evidence in
the singular fact,that the name of Gotama Buddha is not
found in any work in our language that is exclusively
biographical,
" although no uninspired man has exercised
a greater influence than he upon the social and religious
interests of the world.
In the last edition of the Encyclopwdia Britannica there is an articleunder the head of Gotama Buddha,” derived from the same sources as thepresent work .
vi PREFACE .
The first edi tion of this work was published in the
island of Ceylon . Its principal aim was, to reveal to
the adherents of the system the errors it contains ; but
the original form is retained, as the doctrines here attri
buted to Buddha have not been controverted, so far as I
can learn, by‘
any of the priests ; though, of course, theyrepudiate the inferences I have drawn from them. We
are thu s warranted in concluding, that they may be
received as a faithful and tru stworthy exposition of this
wide- spread creed ; and it is the more necessary to notice
this fac t, as there are many things in them that are con
trary to the teachings on this subj ect of several authors
of great name in western literature . The supporters of
Protestant missions will also learn in what manner and
spirit their agents are conducting the great controversy,that mu st increase in magnitude and moment
, until the
tr uth has universally prevailed throughout the realm
of India ; and a lesson may be learnt, of no small sigu i
ficance, as to the acqu irements, the mental furnishing,requ isite in the men who are chosen to do battle
,in this
onslaught upon the most formidable of all the superstitions
that oppose the spread of the Gospel of the Son of God .
There are some things here inserted that would ju stly
be regarded as puerile or unnecessary,if I were w riting
exclus ively for European readers ; and in the sections
on native geography and astronomy many things appear
that would have assumed an entirelv different form,if
P REFACE . vii
the appeal were made to persons acquainted with the
higher departments of science . I was only a visitor in
Ceylon when the work was written,and laboured under
some disadvantages,as my library was in England . But
the pages for which I have to make this apology are few,
as a great part of the volume consists of statements
taken from the origin al Pall,that have not previously
appeared in any European language . I have since pub
lished a similar work in S inghalese," more adapted to the
comprehension of the priests and others who know no
tongue but their own,and whose information is confined
to the limited circle of their own books .
I have to return thanks to the Rev. John Scott, mysuccessor as the General Superintendent of the Wesleyan
Mission in South Ceylon,for many valuable suggestions .
I am also under a debt of obligation, that I can never
repay,to the Rev . David de Silva, a native minister of the
same mission . His attainments in general knowledge are
of a high order, he is well acqu ainted with Bali, and he is
the foremost and most able among the controversialists
of the island who have come forw ard in the defence of
Christianity . It was at one time my intention ,with his aid
,
to make an abridgment, or complete index, of the whole of
the sacred Pitakas . For this purpose I employed a learned
ex-priest, Don Johannes Pand itatilaka, of Koggala, who
began to read with us the section containing the Sutras,9" Suddharmma-nikashava
viii P REFACE .
which he orally translated into S inghalese , sentence by
sentence ; but he was unwilling to proceed further than
the third or fourth N ikaya, probably deterred by the
supporters of Buddhism and as no one of competent in
formation could be induced to continue the task, even for
high reward,I was reluctantly obliged to abandon my
d esig n. I had, however, previously secu red his aid, in
culling from the Pitakas the extracts I requ ired in pre
paring the present work .
A controversy, of great interest, has recently com
menced in Ceylon, between the Christians and the
Buddhists . The priests have purchased presses and type,
and possess printing establishments of their own . They
now refuse to render any assistance to the missionaries,
as before , in explaining the native books, or lending those
that are in their libraries for transcription . Happily,
there is a copy of nearly all the sections of the canonical
text and commentaries in the Wesleyan mission library
at Colombo, bequeathed to it by the late Rev. D . J .
Gogerly . Tracts, pamphlets, and serials issue in large
numbers from the Buddh ist presses . The king of Siam,
and one of the native chiefs in Kandy,have contributed
largely towards their publication . They present some
arguments that are new and ingenious ; but the defiant
and blasphemous expressions they contain,against the
sacred name of “ Jehovah ,”are probably the most awful
ever framed in human language . I left Ceylon on my
P REFACE . ix
return to England, for the third time, in June last, with
thankfulness for the evidences I had been permitted to
wi tness, on the part of many of the more intelligent
of the S inghalese,of a sincere desire to attain to the
possession of the light and truth . I have formed bright
anticipations as to the future . There can be no doubt as to
the result of the contest now carried on for although
it may be prolonged and severe, it must end in the total
d iscomfiture of those who have arisen against the Lord.
and his Christ, and in the renunciation of the atheist
creed that now mars the happiness, and stays the eu
lightenment, of so many of the dwellers in Lanka ;beautifu l
,from the waters that lave its shores to the
storm-tried trees that crown the summits of its highest
mountains,and rich in historic associations
,throughout
more than two thousand years .
HEADINGLEY , LEEDS ,
January 1 , 1866 .
INTRODUCTION.
THERE are few names among the men of the west,that
s tand forth as saliently as that of Crotama Buddha, in the
annals of the east . In little more than two centuries
from his decease the system he established had spread
throughout the whole of India,overcoming opposition
the most formidable,and binding together the most d is
c ordant elements ; and at the present moment Buddhism
is the prevailing religion,under various modifications
,
in Tibet, Nepal, S iam,Bu rma
,Japan, and South Ceylon ;
and in China it has a position of at least equal prominence
w ith its two great rivals,Confu cianism and Tau ism. At
one time its influence extended throughou t nearly three
fourths of Asia from the steppes of Tartary to the palm
groves of Ceylon ,and from the vale of Cashmere to the
i sles of Japan .
In the following pages I have endeavoured to expose
some of its most notable defects and errors but although
it was for this purpose that they were originally written,
there is a further lesson that its history loudly teaches,
of wider range and still greater consequ ence . With allrnestness and sincerity
,the prince Crétama set himself
INTRODUC TION .
to search out the truth and if he failed in his attempt to
discover it,those who may follow him in the same path ,
and use only the samemeans, will havemuch to accomplish ,if they intend to be more successful in its pursu it . In
those who wou ld surpass, or even equal , the so-called
Tathagato, if w e accept as tru e the records of his life,there must be the ex ercise of a severe penance and their
search for the inner illumination must be continued, with
firm resolve and singleness of pu rpose, throughout many
weary years . They who set themselves to this task, must
possess an insight into the vanities of the w orld equ allyclear
,from a lengthened residence amidst the splendours
of the palace ; they mu st at once forsake all that men
regard as pleasant, for a life of extreme self-denial amidst
the solitudes of the wilderness ; they must struggle with
the powers of evil until demon spirits seem to become
visible, with foul gibe and fearfu l menace ; they must add
to this an intense hatred of all that is low and mean,in those with whom they come in contact, and a life-long
passion to resolve the great problems of existence ; they
mu st possess a calmness of thought,
“ like a waveless sea,that no opposition can ruffle, the result of a discipline that
has the acquirement of this serene state as its principalobject ; they mu st scrutinize all the powers and possessions
of man , with an exactness like that with which the skilfulanatomis t seeks to learn the manner and use of every
nerve and articulation of the bodily frame ; and when
they have suffered , thought out, and accomplished , in this
high service, as much as the old man of MRgadha, before
he expired under the sal- tree near Ku sinara, they w ill be
INTRODUCT ION . xiii
entitled to speak of the maj esty of intu ition, and we will
listen heedfully to their words . The svstem elaborated
with so much travail of spirit, and under circumstances so
impressive,is one of the most wonderful emanations that
ever proceeded from man’s intellect, unaided by the
outward revelation of God : but, as we look at it as itis
,calmly and without prejudice, we see, that although
it presents so many evidences of deep thought, and
possesses so many claims to our regard, it manifests .
throughout the most palpable ignorance, not only as to
the facts of science, but also as to the great and essential
principles of morality ; and that after all its promise, it
tends only to increase man’s perplexity as to the present,
and his uncertainty as to the fu ture,leaving him at last
in hopelessness and desolation .
But before some of my readers can see the force and
verity of this conclusion , it will be necessary that they
become better acquainted with the sage of whom I thuswrite ; and it is to furnish those who may be uninformed
of the history of Buddhism, with a rapid sketch of the
doings and doctrines of its founder, that this Introduction
has been penned .
Neither the age, nor even the individual existence, .
of Buddha,is established beyond all controversy ; but
the system is a reality, and stands before us in imposing
magnitude ; forcing itself upon our attention , by its own .
inner power, as well as by the consequences it has pro
duced , widely and in so many ages . We must try,if we
would know rightly the circumstances under which Cretama.
is said to have lived, to transport ourselves to the time
x iv INTRODUCT ION .
o f the prophet Daniel ; but to forget all about Babylon and
its stately monarchs,and imagine ou rselves in an appanage
of Rajagaha, the capital of Magadha, where the lord para
mount of the Aryan race holds his cou rt . “ Te have before
us a state of intellectual cu lture resembling that of Athen s,
in the age of its earlier philosophers ; a splendour and
magnificence like that of Bagdad,in the days of its most
famou s caliphs a commercial activity like that presented
along the course of the Tyrian caravan,when Tadmor
appeared in the desert, beau tiful as its mirage, but no
mockery, as its maj estic temples rose in view before the
merchant from some distant land and a freedom of
manners and constancy of intercourse between the different
grades of society,like that seen now among the nations
of Europe . The story of a people migrating from beyondthe snow-clad hills
,where the gods are thought to hold
their seat,has long since been forgotten numerous
sectaries live together,in ceaseless antagonism, but
without any overt acts of persecu tion ; and a general
o pinion seems to prevail, that some great personage is about
to appear,who will make all one
,from being gifted with
unerring intelligence and unbounded power . It is an era
o f great importance in the history of the east ; and men
are waiting for some event that will decide whether futu re
ages are to be ruled by a Chakrawartti, a un iversal
monarch,or gu ided by a Buddha
,an all-wise sage .
The most successful candidate for supremacy who then
arose was a prince of the race of Sakya , said to have been
born at Kapilaw astu ,a city supposed to be on the borders
‘of Nepal ; on Tuesday, the day of the full moon , the lunar
INTRODUCT ION . XV
mansion being Wisa, in the month of May, in the yearanswering to B .C . 623 ; thus exact are the chroniclers
of this au spicious event . Five days afterwards he receivedthe name of Siddhartta. He was also called Cretama,S akya Singha , and Sakya Muni ; and for all these names
fanciful reasons are given . On the following day hismother Maya died . At an early age his preceptors
foretold that he would become a reclu se,which led his
father, Suddhédana, to take means by which he hoped
that the prince would be induced to pursue a different
c ourse ; and in the pursuit of pleasure, or the excitement
of war, seek glory in a manner more consistent with his
position and prospects,as the scion of a hou se so illu strious
that it could trace its descent through the race of the sun ,
to Sammata, the first monarch of the world . The anxiety
of his father increased as he grew older ; and even when
he was married,at the age of sixteen, to the princess
Yasodhara, peerless in excellence as in grace, there
were reasons why former precau tions shou ld be continued .
The sight of a decrepit old man,supported by a staff, his
form bending in weakness toward the ground, taught
Siddhartta a memorable lesson on the inflrmities to which
man is subj ect . Not long afterwards he accidentally met
a loathsome leper,with attenuated limbs
,and sores cover
ing his entire body, which added to the impressiveness of
his former reflections . And when he saw,after the lapse
of another period,a dead body
,green with putridity,
offensive,and the prey of creeping worms, he learnt, with
a force that the witchery of music and the wiles of woman
c ould not overcome,the vanity of all that is existent, at
xvi INTRODUCT ION .
its best estate . Here was the discovery of the evil, the
danger ; but where was the remedy, the way of escape
This was presented to him,after months of further thought
and anxiety . He saw a recluse,gravely clad
,gentle in
manner, and of placid countenance, walking qu ietly alongthe road . His determination to follow the ex ample he
had seen was formed at once,and it was a sturdy and
indomitable resolve . To increase our estimate of his selfd enial, it is said of him that on the very day when he
heard of the birth of his firstborn,whilst the festivities
of the palace were conducted with unusual splendou r, he
determined to carry his resolution in to effect ; and that
though he saw the Sleeping mother and his new-born.
babe, lovely as a lotus flower,from the threshold of the
room in which they lay,he forsook them, withou t any
expression of regret, and rushed into the forest, far away
from all that could bind by affection or attract by smile,accompani ed by only one attendant
,whom he soon after
wards dismissed . Thc vigilance of his father was on this
day relaxed,as it was a thing not to be thought of, that
at such a time,when the whole city was as one great
festive-hall,he could cast away the royal diadem, with all
its attendant attractions,for the alms-bowl of the mendi
cant and its privations .
The garment of the recluse was adopted, but it was im
possible to conceal the superiority of his birth and when
he went to the city of Rajagaha, to seek alms from door
to door,as was then the custom of those who had aban
doned the w orld , the beauty of his person, and the grace
fulness of his manner, attracted general attention, and
xviii INTRODUCT ION .
he stood forth before all worlds a supreme Buddha,wiser
than the wisest,and higher than the highest .
As he was twenty-nine years of age when he left the
palace, and remained six years in the wilderness, this
event mu st have occurred about his thirty-fifth year .
From this time the monastery was his residence,and he
was soon surrounded by numerous disciples,as he claimed
to be the only teacher ofmen free from all error . Atfirst,
from seeing the difficulty attending the establishment of a
new and stringent system; he resolved that he would con
fine to his own breast the discovery he had made ; but at
the intercession of others he was indu ced to change his
resolution, and commence the preaching of the Dharmma.
It was to his old friends,the five brahmans
,that he first
unfolded the principles of his religion . They were at that
time resident near the city of Benares . The discourse he
then delivered is called the Dhamma- chakkappawattana
suttan . In it he declares that there is sorrow connected
with every mode of existence that the cau se of sorrow is
desire, or attachment (to sensu ous obj ects ) that the
destruction of sorrow is to be effected by being set free
from attachment to existing obj ects (w hich secu res the
possession of n irwana) and that to be set free from this
attachment there mu st be right conduct,mental tran
qu illity,and other similar virtues . These truths were
previously unknown ; they were revealed by former
Buddhas, but had long been entirely forgotten . GOtama
now received them by intu ition ,and he proclaimed them
once more to the world, authoritatively, from having
attained to the most perfect wisdom.
INTRODUCT ION . xix
The king of Magadha, Bimsara, was converted to the
faith of his former friend, now become Buddha . His two
principal disciples were Seriyut and Mugalan . The first
was convinced of the truth of the Dharmma by hearing the
stanza so often found upon monuments now existing in
India :Yé dhamma hétuppabhawaYesan hétun Tathagato,Aha yesan chayo nirédhoEwan wadi Maha Samano .
All things proceed from some cause ; this cause has
been declared by the Tathagato ; all things will cease toexist this is that which is declared by the great Sramana
(Buddha) .
On a visit to his native city, his father, Suddhédana,embraced hi s faith, and his half-brother, Nanda, and hisson Rahula
,entered the order of the priesthood that he
established. The same course was followed by Anurudha
his cousin, Ananda his nephew,who became his personal
attendant,and Déwadatta, his wife
’s brother . The second
wife of his father, who was also his own foster-mother,Maha Prajspati, was the first female admitted to profession .
The authority of Buddha was not undispu ted,nor his
high position maintained without opposition and trial .
At one time a low female was suborned by his enemies to
accuse him with breaking the law of continence,but her
artifice ended only in her own confusion . The son of
B imsara,Ajasat, supported the cause of the brahmans,
and was j oined in his enmity to Buddha by Déwadatta, at
whose instance he caused the death of his royal father .
These sectarists attempted to take the life of Buddh a on
XX INTRODUCT ION .
three several occasions ; first,by means of 500 archers,
then by a stone hurled from a machine,which stru ck his
foot, and cau sed it slightly to bleed, and lastly by the
attack of a wild and infuriated elephant but on all these
occasions their wicked designs were frustrated . The king
afterwards repented of his crimes,and embraced the faith
of the Dharmma ; and Déwadatta was also led to see the
folly of the course he had pursued ; but though he sought
forgiveness,his offences were too great to go unpunished,
and he died a hopeless death . The same reckless course
was followed by his father-in-law, Supra Buddha, whose
end was equally sad . The days of Buddha were spent in
carrying the alms-bowl, and in other acts required by
the disciplinary code of his order,to all of which he was
as submi ssive as any member of the novitiate ; in con
versing with his friends and opponents on the principles
o f his religion in visiting di stant places, even the heavens,that he might preach the bana to men and gods ; and in
performing more astounding miracles than were ever even
thought of by any wonder-worker among the western
nations . His death,when eighty years of age, was caused
by partaking of pork given to him in alms by the smith
Chunda,which produced diarrhoea . In great pain he
travelled from Pawa,a distance of twelve miles, during
which time he had frequently to rest and as he had been
born under a tree,and under a tree attained to the
wisdom of a Buddha, it w as under a tree that he died ,near the city of Ku sin z
'
lra.
In these legends there may be a portion of truth ,but
INTRODUCT ION . xxi
they have been intermixed with so many events of im
possible occurrence,that we are necessitated to regard the
whole with di strust. The easterns are great adepts at
d ovetailing a number of stories , taken from widely different
sources, into one even and unbroken narrative . We can
sometimes detect the traces of this method of manipu la
tion, in Buddhist authors, and di scover in what way it has
been brought about ; but there are other instances in which
the keenest critic must confess himself at fault . There
are some events, such as his extreme asceticism in the
wilderness,his hesitation about declaring to others the
truths he had learnt,the Opposition of certain of his
relatives, the attempts upon his life, the circumstances
attendant on the admission of women into his community,the powers he acknowledged in his adversaries, and, above
all, the cause to which his death is attributed, for the in
vention of which we can see no reason, and so conclude
that they may have been real occurrences . Of the exaggerations and myths contained in the Buddhist records ,I have spoken elsewhere . It may suffice, therefore, to
s tate here,that the sage is regarded by his followers
as having unlimited knowledge and power, though a
man, and subj ect to all the passions and infirmities of
humanity, previous to his reception of the Buddhaship .
In his youth he married and had a son ; his inferior wives
w ere numbered by thousands ; he had to eat and drink
like other men,and seek relief from pain and sickn ess
by the use of medicine ; and it was from an ordinary
d isease that he di ed . But all the principal events of his
life are represented as being attended by incredible
xxii INTRODUCT ION .
prodi gies . He could overturn the earth in an instant,
pass through the air at will, and know the thoughts of allbeings, in whatever world. The legends in which these
powers are assumed,and the incidents connected with their
exercise detailed, may be learnt from the three Pitakas .
These works constitute the sacred canon of the Buddhists,and if it can be proved that they were formed under the
circumstances in which they claim to have been originallyrevealed and rehearsed
,at three general convocations, the
system they contain must be entitled to more regard than
w e should infer from their foolish legends but the arguments in favour of their trustworthiness fail in one mostimportant and essential particular . We cannot trace
them to the time in which Buddh a is said to have lived .
In this respect they are in a similar position with the
greater part of Zend and Vedic lore, about the origin
of which we know little more than the name of the
author,and this not always w ith certainty . It is said
by Dr . Murray Mitchell,that it is not possible that
Zoroaster,the supposed great founder of the Zend system,
promulgated it in the shape it now possesses ; at all events,that it cannot be demonstrated . The system of Zoroaster,the system of the Zend books, the system of the Pahlvi
books,the system of the Persian books written by modern
Parsis,and the system of the Parsis of our own day, are
on no account to be assumed to be identical ." We might
make a similar statement in relation to Buddhism. There
can be little doubt,however, that the system known by
this name originated in some part of India between the
Transactions of the Bombay Asiatic Society.
INTRODUCT ION . xxiii
Ganges and the borders of Nepal, though we may haveno proof of this beyond the traditions of its adherents .
The reign of Asoka is the starting point of Buddhist
chronologists and we know from other sources that they
are here not far from the truth . Nor do I see any reasonto doubt that the system originated about the time of
Bimsara. The internal evidence presented by the Pitakasof the age in whi ch they were written will be more definite
when they have been more thoroughly studied . The
insight we receive therefrom into the social and religiou s
position of the people of India,would lead us to conclude
that the time in which Buddha lived was strictly neither
Vedantic nor Brahmanical, but a transition state between
the establishment of the two systems, with a greater
tendency towards the latter . Thi s Opinion we found
upon the following circumstances . There is no reference
in them,so far as I can learn
,to the question that was
afterwards the moot-point in all Hindu speculation , the
relation of man to the Supreme Spir it . F ew of the gods
at present worshipped were then known, or if known by
the same names, they had offi ces given to them di fferingfrom those new assigned to them in Indian mythology .
In the accu sation brought by GOtama against the Brah
mans of corrupting the Vedas, there may be evidence
of the commencement of the changes that were afterwards
so extensively effected,as seen in the Paranas and other
legendary works . We do not find that he rebuked them
for their grossness or licentiousness, which he would havedone
,if these evils had been as prominent in their religion
then as they are now . Neither is there any allusion to
xxiv INTRODUCTION .
human sacrifices, which may be regarded as a proof that
Buddhism commenced before they were practised in Indi a .
The tenets afterwards professed by the Brahmans were not
yet fully developed,nor had they begun to influence
popular opinion to any great extent, or to produce that
change in the manners and customs of the Hindus that
has since been effected . The Brahman held an important
position in the king’s court,but it was a subordinate one
,
and the royal caste was placed by Buddha in the highest
rank . Though caste had for some time exerted an evil
influence,it still had to contend for universal acknow ledg
ment and reception . The Vedas were not regarded with
the same reverence by the other castes as by the Brah
mans,nor were they looked upon generally as a standard
of appeal . When men refused to receive their revelations
as an infallible guide, it was not accounted as a crimeagainst the state
,or as an innovation upon the polity of the
social order then established . The claims of Brahman ism
were argued in the same manner as those of other religious
systems . The position of woman was much in accordance
with her place in the western world . We read of females
in the higher ranks who never stepped upon the ground
for delicateness but when individuals are brought before
u s,as Maha Maya
,the mother of Getama, or Wisakha,
the wife of P I’
Irnna-w ardhana, we see them moving freely
in general society, and speaking to men without restraint .
It was the custom for certain clas ses of women to wander
abou t from place to place, and challenge even men to enter
into controversy with them, apparently without any sense
of impropriety on their part, or of condemnation in the
xxvi INTRODUCT ION .
version was lost for a time to the S inghalese, but it has
been renewed from Burma or Siam . I will concede that
the present recension may be the same,in all essential
particulars, as it was fourteen hundred years ago . The
works forming it profess to be a transcript of others
written for the fi rst time in the reign of VVattagamini,abou t 90 That they cannot be exactly and identically
the {p sz'
ssz'
ma cerba of the older canon,we have internal
evidence ; but how far the difference may extend cannot
now be determined . The works committed to writin g by
the S inghalese priests are said to have been the same as
those brought over in the memory of Mabindo, who
introduced Buddh ism into the island in 307 B .C . There
was thus an interval of more than 200 years,durin g
which the sacred canon,according to the Buddhists them
selves, was preserved in the memory alone . It was trans
mitted at this early stage from one generation of the
priesthood to another, by oral tradition . But,upon his
torical grounds, we can neither accept the oral transmi ssion
nor the subsequent committal to writing . The former is
not possible,and the other is Opposed by facts of which we
have present evidence . N0 one acquainted with modern
research on eastern subj ects will contend that the annals
of the Buddhists were now committed to writing for the
first time . We know that writing was in use by the
Aryan race before this period,and that it was employed
for religious purposes by the Buddhist monarch Asoka,
the father of Mabindo,by which means he sought to
extend its doctrines among all classes of his subj ects,
and in all parts of his dominions . We cannot suppose
INTRODUCT ION . xxvii
that he who is said to have erected shrines in
honour of Buddha,with Pali inscriptions upon them, some
of which still exist, would neglect the more important
matter of the preservation of the words of the sage, so far
as they could then be recovered . In his reign the canon
of the Dharmma is said to have been rehearsed for the
third time ; and as this was professedly on account of the
number of heresies that then abounded, the necessitymust
have been seen of committing it to some more certain
medium than that of memory. The great legacy that
Buddha left to his disciples was the Dharmma. This,with its exponents
,the priests, was, by his own appoint
ment, to represent him when he was no more visible, or
had become extinct ; and we may conclude, from the exact
knowledge of human natu re he exhibited on so many
o ccasions, that he would see the futility of naming it as
his representative,unless its chief principles and requ ire
ments were written,and thu s placed beyond the reach
O fmistake . And we can further suppose that among thenumerous innovations made by Buddha upon established
c ustom, one would be, the writing down of the principia
o f hi s religion, in the vernacular of hi s country, as it was
intended that his system should be of general acceptance,
and not confined to any particular class . The rehearsal
of the Pitakas in the time of Asoka professes to be a
repetition of tw o former rehearsals, on each occasion the
same words being repeated, syllable by syllable, and word‘
by word . The canon as we have it now (with a few
necessary addi tions in relation to events that took place
afterwards) , is declared to be the same as that rehearsed in
xxviii INTRODUCTION .
the year of Buddha’s death . Upon the circumstances of
this first rehearsal, most important consequences depend .
If the miracles ascribed to Buddha can be proved to have
been recorded of him at the time of his death,this wou ld
go far towards proving that the authority to which he laid
claim was his rightful prerogative . They were of too
publi c a character to have been ascribed to him than, if’
they had not taken place ; so that if it was openly declared
by his contemporaries,by those who had lived with him
in the same monastery,that he had been repeatedly v isited
by Sekra and other dewas ; and that he had walked through
the air, and visited the heavenly worlds, in the presence
of many thousands,and those the very persons whom
they addressed, we ought all to render him the homage
awarded to him by even his most devoted followers . But
the legend of the early rehearsal has nothing to support it, .
beyond the assertion of authors who lived at a period longsubsequent . The testimony of contemporaneous history
presents no record of any event that quadrates with the
wonderful powers attribu ted to the rahats, which wou ld
undoubtedly not have been wanting,if these events had
really taken place . The text of the Pitakas is con
siderably more ancient than the commentary, as we learn
from internal evidence ; and, from the style in which it iswritten
,we may conclude that the two could not have
been simultaneously repeated, at the period assigned to the
first convocation . The text is the composition of men who
were well acquainted with the localities of Ind ia, and
probably resident upon the continent ; but many of the
mistakes made in the commentaries are of a kind that
INTRODUCT ION . xxix
c ould not have been fallen into by persons familiar withthe places of which they write . The statement that the
sun passes annually from Maha Meru to the Sakwala rock,and back again
,and therefore appears in the zenith of all
places in Jambud ipa, must have been made by some one
resident in a region where the sun is annually vertical ;but the cities in which the Pitakas are said to have beenrecited are all to the north of the tropi c of Cancer, where
the falsity of the account would at once be seen . The age
that succeeded that of BuddhaghOso is represented by
Colonel Sykes as a period strikingly marked by the invtion of legends ; and it may have been from the publicationof the commentaries that many of them originated, or were
more extensively diffused . In an extract from the Wi
bhanga Atuwawa the case is supposed of a person speakingDamila and Ardha
,which would scarcely have occurred to ,
one then living north of the Ganges . There are incidents,more especially in the Jatakas, that have their parallel in the
lore of the western side of the Indus ; which would seem to
bring them within some period later than the establishment
the Indo-Macedonian kingdom. Whether the similarity
is accidental,or the origin identical
,is not yet certain ;
but the framework of the greater number of the tales withwhich nearly all Buddhist works are so plentifully inter
larded, is so eminentlyHindu in its character that there canbe no mistake about the place of their birth .
There are other things that tend to throw suspicion on
the authority of the Pitakas . Among these I may reckon'
as one of the most prominent, the number of the heresies
that are said to have prevailed at an early period of
XXX INTRODUCT ION .
Buddhism . If there were any proof that the severals ectaries all acknowledged the validity of the Pitakas
,and
only differed as to the interpretation of certain parts of
them, these very differences would be an argument infavour of the purity of the canon . But from the dignity
of the persons connected with some of these schisms, or
the importance of the subj ects upon which they treat, as we
learn from their names,we may conclude that some of the
heresies were of such a character as necessarily to involve
the rej ection of the Pitakas as the rule of faith . We are
told that,in the first century after Buddha there were no
s ects formed ; but this Statement is disproved by the names
of some of the schisms, one of which, it would appear,proceeded from Rahula, the son of Sakya, as we learn from
the works of the Tibetans and the other from Déwadatta,his brother-in-law, as we learn from Fa Hian . From these
premises we conclude, that though there might be Buddhist
works in existence at an early period,neither the text nor
the commentary of the Pitakas was compiled or completed,
in its present form,until long after the death of Buddha .
We shall have a better insight into the circumstances of‘ the world in the time of Buddha
,if we remember that
Lycurgu s had flourished, and the Messenian wars had been
fought,in the centu ry preceding his death . If the reckon
ing of Carpz ov is correct, making Ezekiel to have receivedhis commission as a prophet in the year 594 B .C .
,when
he was nearly thirty years of age , he and GOtama must
have been born within a few months of each other,
‘623-4 B .C. At this time Josiah reigned in Jerusalem,and
INTRODUCTION. xxxi
that city was destroyed by Nebuchadnez z ar in the year inwhich Gotama obtained the Buddhaship . Croesus in Lydia,and Cyrus in Persia, lived about the same period in Greece,Anacreon, Sappho, Simonides, Epimenides, Draco, Solon,ZEsop, Pythagoras, Anaximander
,Anaximenes, and
Pisistratus in Egypt,P sammeticus and in Rome,
Servius Tullius . About thirty years after his death,Ahashuerus reigned from India even unto Ethiopia .”
This was a stirring era in the history of the world, when
nations were agitated,and men were seeking out new
c hannels of thought and action . The idea of men now
flying through the air at will is unfounded and absurd . It
so happens, that the intercourse of the west with the east
c ommenced in this age ; and we can deny, on historical
grounds, the possibility of the appearance of any sage in
India with powers like those fabled of Buddha,with
greater certainty than if he had lived at any previous
period .
We may now leave all questions relative to the origin
o f Buddhism and its sacred code,and proceed to an exami
nation of its more important principles . Throughout our
investigation it will be necessary to bear in mind that
there is a great and essential difference between Buddhismand Brahmanism ; and this caution is requ ired the more,because in many instances
,the same terms are used in both
systems, but in senses widely different . The antagonism
o f the one to the other is decided,continually presented
,
and extending to nearly all their more prominent speculations . The religion of the earlier portions of the Vedas is
Xxxl l INTRODUCTION .
that of the countryman,the peasant : not of men living
in the city, nor always in the encampment or the rudevillage ; but often abroad, by the rock, near the river, or
in the broad plain . Here the lightning gleams,and the
heavy clouds pour down fatness, and the bright sun seems
to bring into existence all that breathes in the air or
waves in the wind ; and at another time the soft moonlight
sleeps upon the bank, and the lotus lies still as it is outspread upon the waters
,and the leaves of the tall sal tree
are unstirred, as they stand out against the pale sapphire
of the sky . Surrounded by these influences,the Aryans
were led to worship the elements ; first,the gods who
di rect them,and then the material powers themselves .
When the son of SuddhOdana passed at once from the walls
of the palace to the open wilderness,the physical changes
by which he was met must have appeared to him,in great
measure,as they had done to the first Aryan settlers, and
their poets,the rishis
,when they descended from the
rugged mountain,and entered the vast plains of Hindu
sthan . But the effect produced upon the mind was widely
different in the two instances . The prince retired to the
forest to search for truth ; not to lurk as a robber or watchfor prey. He saw what others had not seen , and what
others had seen he disregarded . His attention was fixed
upon himself ; and when the thunder shook the earth
around him,its roll came not to him as a voice telling
of the presence of God,but as a monition to remind him
that nothing whatever is permanent . In the brightest
sunlight,as in the darkest storm-cloud, everywhere and
always,there appeared to him unquiet, disappointment, and
sorrow .
xxxiv INTRODUCTION .
to which are certain qualities or attributes .‘ He also saw
that neither raging element nor prowling wild beast hadany respect for him as a king’s son ; that there is no
mystic power surrounding royalty ; and the futility of all
caste pretension was thereby discovered . He learn t, again,that man requires not, for his preservation and support ,costly array
,a substantial dwelling, or a luxurious couch
on which to repose ; and these were accordingly rej ected .
In the woods he was away from all kinds of domestic orsocial entanglement and as he saw that home associationsare a hindrance when seeking the perfection of tranquillity
,
these were sternly set aside . When in the world he hadfelt only disappointment and dissatisfaction ; and as henow discovered that even the shade of the tree, and the
most secret recesses of the cave, are not free from the
thoughts that bring uneasiness and apprehension, he con
cluded that perfect peace is not to be found with theliving in any world . Over these conclusions he longbrooded, sometimes battling with them as with realexistences
,until he had satisfied himself that the cessation
of man’s restlessness can only be brought about by thecessation of his existence . He then sought out the means
by which this is to be accompli shed ; and when he had discovered four paths to this desired end, he proclaimed that
through the power of intu ition he had seen, by the divine
eyes with which he had become gifted, the foundation of allknowledge
,the most important of all the truths that can
possibly be presented to the intellect .As in the case of D’Holbach,
“nature becomes in his scheme a mach ine
,
man an organism,morality self-interest
,deity a fiction.
”—Farrar’s Bampton
Lectures, p . 256 .
INTRODUCTION . XXXV’
In this arrangement I have followed the guidance
of Buddhist authors . It is probable, however, that the
conclusions I have described were not the product of one
individual mind . Long periods may have elapsed betweenone di scovery and another, and many different persons mayhave been engaged in the adjustment of the whole into
one uni form and connected system. Under the influence
of the impressions said to have been thus produced,GOtama
is represented as again seeking intercourse with the world.
But whilst in it, he was not of it . He sought only to
expose its follies, and to reveal to others the wisdom of the
Dharmma, which he had himself acqui red w ith so much
diflicultv . After a slight hesitation as to the propriety
of the course he was about to pursue, he was at first, in the
greatness of his pity for mankind,ready to receive into his
community any one who presented himself for acceptance ;but as he found that many evils were attendant upon thisindi scriminate admission
,he rej ected
,for obvious reasons
,
the leper,the being not human (amanusya) , the slave, the
debtor, the king’s servant
, the minor, and the youth who
had not received the consent of his parents . The form
of admission was Simple, being little more than the
utterance of the words Come hither and even at
a subsequent period,though greater formality was used,
certain obligations were implied,and the consequences
of their non observance stated,no vows were taken, and no
promise was made . The professed Bhikkhu was to shun all
sexual intercourse, of whatever kind or in whateven
3form,
’ and to avoid all conversation or familiarity thatmight lead his mind toward evil . The recollections of
xxxvi INTRODUCTION .
home were to be put away all relationship that was not
within the monastery was to be unheeded and he was to
live as one who had nothing to do with the world, but to
repudiate alike its frown and its favour. Except certain
specified garments,an alms-bowl
,a razor
,a needle, and a
water-strainer,he was not to possess anything of his own .
He was to be a mendicant,in his appointed round to seek
for food, passing by no house on account of the poverty
or low caste of its inmates . He was not to make any Sign
that he was present as he stood before the door, but to wait
in silence ; and after a certain time, if he received nothing,he was to pass onward to some other habitation . He was
meditatively to eat what he had received, in the reverse
order of that in which it had been put into the bowl,taking the last first
,however inferior it might be to other
portions lower down in the vessel . N0 food that he hadmet received in alms was to pass the door of his mouth ,nor was he to eat anything solid after the noon of the day .
He was not to touch gold or silver ; indolence was to
be avoided ; Sleep indulged in sparingly ; and all luxuries“were to be rej ected .
As to the outward person, the priest was to regard
his body as a loathsome wound, of which his garments
are the bandage . The robe was to be made of a prescribed
form,divided into patches, and sewn together ; and if he
t ook for this purpose a piece of cloth that had been tram
pled upon in the street, blown away by the wind, cast on
Shore by the waves, or that had covered a dead body, so
much the better,as it would be the greater mortification to
his pride . No ringlets were to cluster around his head, as
INTRODUCTION. XXXVII
i t was to be close shaven ; and no kind of ornament or
perfume was to be used . He was not to live in a permanento r substantial house ; his residence was to be made of leaves
and he who sought the higher attainments of his profession
was never to lie down,but to live at the root of a tree, in a
c ave, or in a cemetery .
It is evident that so stringent a code of discipline would
require,for its right enforcement, a vigilant mode of super
v ision . The PratimOkSha, which contains the precepts and
prohibitions, 227 in numberfi‘ to be attended to
,is,there
fore, to be read bi-monthly in an assembly of the priests,a t which at least four must be present . No more painfu l
penance is exacted for transgression than the sweeping
o f the court-yard of the temple, or some act equally easywo f performance ; but there are certain crimes that are
followed by permanent exclusion . If all the priests present
at a chapter are found,on examination
,to be guilty of the
s ame offence, they cannot absolve each other ; but if one
h as broken one precept, and some one else a different
precept, they can give each other absolution .
It has been supposed that one method by which Bud
d hism gained so great an ascendency over its rivals, and
one reason why it spread so rapidly, was, that it adopte i
the custom of preaching to the people in the vernacu lar
tongue . But I have not learnt, from the records I have
read,that there was any difference in this respect, betw een
G etama and the other teachers who in his day professed to
These laws, translated from Pali by the late Rev. D. J . Gogerly, and fromt nese by the Rev. S . Beale, appear at length in the Journal of the RoyalA siatic Society, vol . xix ,
407.
INTRODUCTION .
proclaim the truth . The formulas they adopted, the
doctrines they taught,and the controversies they main
tained, were all in the same tongue as the teachings
of Buddha . Even the Vedas were in a di alect generallyunderstood at the time in which they were composed . Nor
can I see that there was anything like preaching, as
practised in our own day, or as was once heard from the
great word-master of Constantinople . Whoever wished
might have access to Buddha,at all proper hours
,and he
w as willing to answer any question that was asked of himby any one who was not impertinent, or who evidenced
a desire to know the truth . The rude opponent he caught
in the meshes of his own net,and silenced his obj ections
,
quietly, but with withering effect, as he was a most aecom
plished dialectician . Nearly all his recorded discoursesarose out of conversations he held with persons whom he
sought out with the intention of teaching and conv ertingto his faith
,or with persons who came to his residence to
dispute his prepositions or listen to his words . There
does not appear to have been any particular hour of the
day,or day of the week
,when he regularly preached to a
promiscuous company,as was the practice of Mahomet .
He is said to have kept was,” in which the public re ad
ing of the bana is now essential, and, when he visited
the heavenly worlds,he is represented as delivering a
long discourse ; but the first is a custom of later times,
which arose when the canon of the Dharmma was com
pleted, and the last is away from the province of history,and we must pitch our tents in dreamland before we can
receive it as true . As Mabindo is said to have translated
INTRODUCTION. xxxix
the Pitakas into the vernacular Singhalese,we may
suppose that something similar was done in other countries
when Buddhism was introduced . They are now usually
read in Bali, in the month when was” is celebrated . It
is believed that the mere hearing of the words, Without the
understanding of them, is an opus operatum ; but they are
sometimes read by one priest and interpreted by another .The power arising from the use of the vernacular is now
overlooked by the priests ; but there are lay devotees who
read and interpret the sacred canon in families, after the
manner of Scripture-readers . The images of Buddha
sometimes represent him as in the attitude of preaching,as if this were one of his common practices ; but image
worship is altogether an innovation upon primitive Bud
dh ism ; and it is possible that the posture we take to
indicate preaching may rather refer to the act of blessing .
When the Aryan race became a settled people,and
were no l onger nomads, it would be seen by the more
thoughtful that the spirit of the Vedas was not in unison
with their present circumstances ; and that the most im
portant questions they were now anxious to understand,received no solution from this source . The same defects
would be notic ed by Gotama, amidst his meditations in theforest
,and he there learnt to disregard the Vedas as a
revelation of truth . He must have had some acquaintance
with these ancient records,though, perhaps, not to any
great extent,as they were in a language that differed from
his own ; and when a youth he would not be permitted
by his anxious father, to spend much time in study .
We have no reference to them in his discourses, until
xl INTRODUCTIO N.
the controversies are recorded that he held with the
Brahmans ; and then the allusions are inexact, and not
unfrequently intended only to convince his opponents that
the recension then in use had been surreptitiously interpolated
,in order to promote the interests of the Brahmans .
The principal precepts are ten in number,the first
five of which may be taken" by the laity . They are
all negative ; they set before man no God to “ love ” and
obey,
” and no one to “ honour. ” They are Observances
rather than obligations . The ethical works of theBuddhists
,however
,give a
~more favourable insight into
the morality of the system than its ten precepts, as will
be seen by reference to the Dhammapadan, or Footstepsof B uddha .” This work, though forming part of the last
section of the discourses of Buddha, is evidently of more
recent origin, from its deference to the authority of“ the ancients, and its statements as to the happiness
of the next world .
”
By the earlier Buddhists there is much said about
c ertain rites, connected with meditation, abstraction, and
the acquirement of supernatural powers . In the subduing
of the passions,some of the rules laid down may be found
of benefit . The meditation of kindness, maitri , is to be
thu s conducted . The priest must think that if the words
of any one with whom he is at enmity are bad,his actions
may be good ; that if his words and actions are had , hismind may be still free from evil ; and that if his mindand actions are bad, his words may be good. Again
,if he
T h is expression, though not idiomatic, is a literal rendering of the wordused by the Buddhists .
xlii INTRODUCTION .
the folly of what he was doing, and recommended himrather to honour his relatives, rulers, friends, and teachers .
The tradition of God’s existence,dimly seen in the
earlier Sanhitas of the Rig Veda, had now passed away ;and it is possible that this great tru th may never once
have been presented to his mindff‘ This is not an axiom
that the physical elements teach us, with all their won
d rous revelations . They may tell us of power, and wisdom,
and prevailing goodness ; but their own untaught and
unaided voice cannot lead man up to God ; nor is thethe thought of the fanciful Renan correct, that the desertis monotheistic -
t With the furtive propensities of therishis
,Buddha could have no sympathy
,and to the gods
who were said to aid them in the chase,the raid, or the
battle, he could pay no reverence or respect . In his
meditations,intense and long continued
,he thought that
he had discovered all that belongs to man,all the essen
tialities of existence . Under the influence of former dis
appointment the search was conducted . He w as prepared
to find man an empty, unreal, and disconsolate being ,
When he had seen man’s body,feeble
,decaying, and
The nearest approach to i t that I havemet with is found in page 171 .
1' The following thoughts are more in accordance with fact . “ I f the eye o f
sense he the sole guide in looking around on nature, we discover only a universe of bru te matter, phenomena linked together in a uniform succession ofantecedents and consequents . Mind becomes
’
only a higher form of matter,S in loses its poignancy . Immortality disappears . God exists not, except as apersonification of the Cosmos . Materialism
,atheism,
fatalism, are the ultimate results which are proved by logic and history to follow from this extreme\ lt3W. The idea of spirit cannot be reached by it.” - (Farmr
’
s B amptonLed ures
, These sentences might have been written expressly to illustratc the origin and character of Buddhism
,so true are they to its principles
and teachings .
INTRO DUC 1 ION . xliii
loathsome ; when he had marked well the way in which
he feels and thinks ; and when he had traced the entire
c ircle of his hopes and fears—he supposed that he had
seen all of man ; and then it was he inferred that he is a
mere collection of atoms,organizations, and mental powers,
w hich at death are broken up and di ssipated,and all their
,
mu tuality lost for ever . There is nothing,he concluded
connected with man like a spirit or soul ; all that is
regarded as the self being an unreality, a delusion, amere name .
But though Buddha could discover no connexion be
tween the individual man,now and in other states of
existence,there were around him constantly-recurring
events that might have something parallel in the story
of intelli gent existence . The changes of the seasons, the
appearance of the same wonderfully-formed insects and
many-tinted flowers at one period of every year, the
c oming of the monsoon and its destructive storms, and
the cycles of the stars,could not fail to make some im
pression on his mind ; and may have awoke the thought
that something in man may come and go, appear and dis
appear, and then re-appear,in a similar manner. The
s ight of the seeds that germinated around his retreat,and of the frui ts that grew everywhere in the verdant
wilderness,producing other seed-bearing and fruit-bearing
trees,taught him that there is some nexus of c ommunica
tion betwen life and life the life that now is, and the life
presented in lineal succession . He saw, too, that the virtue‘of the seed or fruit is imparted to the grain or tree that
springs from it, and to all its products that like produces
xliv INTRODUCTION .
like ; and that this process may go on for ever, unless theprinciple of life be extinguished . There was a plain .
analogy to all this in the appearance of the successive
generations of men ; but he strangely applied the process
to man as a moral agent . He thought that another being
was, in some mysterious way, produced from the being
that was broken up and that to this new existence the
vi rtue of the former existence, not only its mental idiosyncrasies, but its moral responsibilities, was communicatedintact. But as he saw that there are anomalies which
were not by this means explained,he concluded that not
only the virtue of the individual seed is communicated to
the seed next produced,but that the separate virtue of all.
the preceding seeds from which it had been produced for
thousands of generations, was communicated also, thoughin the seed itself that virtue might not be apparent or, to
pass away from the analogy to the actuality, .he inferred
that all living beings are under the influence of all thatthey have ever done, in all the myriad states of existencethrough which they have passed in by-gone ages . But
here his analogy becomes a fallacy and a delusion ; and themoment he passes away from the visible to the invisible
,he
is lost in a devious maze . The productive power of theseed or . the fru it may illustrate man
’s origin, as possessed
of an organized body,but we may not carry it further . .
The passing on of an apparent moral and mental identity
may be witnessed in some families, and a strong and
healthy parentage will probably produce an offspring withsimilar characteristics . That offspring w ill not only be of
the same species as the parent, and similar in appearance,
INT RODUCT ION . xlv
but may have the same dispositions, endowments, and pro
pensities. But Buddhism teaches that the new being may "
oe of an entirely different species to that from whence it
proceeded ; and we have no trace of an invisible transference of the virtue of the grape to the haw , or of the fish
of the sea proceeding from the fowl of the air, which
ought to take place for the analogy of its founder to hold
good. There is something belonging to man which no
unaided mind can discover, and which no eye can see, .
unless the darkening film that rests thereon be taken away
by the hand of God ; but as this was too subtle an objectto be found out by Buddha, it entirely eluded his search,and he was unable to trace its pathway into the other
world . He knew not that man had received within him
self, in the beginning, the breath of life ; and that in
creation he is alone, with an essential difference, and animpassable distance
,between himself and the highest of
the other creatures in his own world .
By the Hindus man is considered to be an emanation .
from God, and an almost imperceptibly small part of avast whole ; his very existence being an illusion, without
permanence or reality. The relationships of life are of
importance, as influencing his position in another state of
existence ; but there will be no cessation to his wanderingsuntil he is re-absorbed in God . By Buddha, however, all
thoughts of dependence on any other power outward to
man, either as to present or future existence, was di scarded.
He concluded that each congeries we call a man is the
maker of his own fortune,the establisher of his own
position it is he who shapes out his own destiny, whether"
x lvi INTRODUCT ION .
of partial blessedness or of mingled woe inasmuch as he“ inherits the karmma, the moral power, of all his actions, in
all former states of existence, whether it be good or evil .So long as he is under the influence of apadana
,or attach
ment to sensuous objects, that attachment will necessitate
the repetition of existence . On the overcoming,or exc i
sion,of attachment, and not till then, he attains nirwana ;
after which he will never again be re-born,but will cease
to exist . There is no appeal by the Buddhist to any
exterior power to assist him in the attainment of this
g rand consummation ; if he is faithful to his position and
privileges, he himself may become a better and noblerbeing than any of the gods . He is isolated and independent he j oins no one else in seeking assistance by prayer
,
though from the teachings of another he may receive aid,
to do in a better manner what, after all, must be his own
work . When he enters upon the most exalted of all theexercises it is possible for him to have recourse to
,that of
d hyana,he retires to some secret place for the purpose
,
where,shutting out all the world, he seeks to overcome
the motion of his own breath, and then enters upon a
course of meditation so abstract and profound, that if a
blast from the war-trumpet were to be blown close to his
c ar,he would no more perceive it than if he were dead .
It will have been noticed that the thoughts of Buddha
on the subject of transmigration are peculiar, and I knowof no approach to them in any other system. He teaches
that it is not a spirit that passes from one state of ex ist
ence to another, nor any material vehicle, but the moral
principle of the man, as formed and moulded by the acts
INTRODUCTION . xlvii
o f the present and all preceding generations . This doc
trine was repudi ated by the priests of Ceylon when it was
first presented to them by the late Mr . Gogerly but, on
further examination, they acknowledged that it was in
accordance with the teaching of Buddha more especially
if Nagasena, who had many conversations with king
Milinda on this and kindred subjects,is to be regarded
as an authority . The earliest reference to transmigration,
a tenet now universally received among the Hindus,appears to be in the Dharmma
,as it is not alluded to
in the earlier Vedic hymns,nor is it recelved now
.
by the
nu-brahmani z ed denominations of The absurdity
of Buddha’s teachings about the reproductive power of
attachment to sensuous obj ects,and the transference of
the karmma, was soon seen, and was never imitated ; but
the doctrine of transmigration was retained,as it appeared
to explain many of the difficulties presented in the moraluniverse . We trace the origin of this tenet to the same
period both in the eastern and western world .
In contrast to the worldly spirit of the Vedas,were the
speculations of Buddha as to the chief end of man . In
these old records there are few confessions of sin,and still
fewer supplications for its pardon,or for the reception of
power to put it away . But all the forthputting of theu tmost energy of the sage of Magadha, in the whole of
Professor Weber remarks that owing to the fragmentary nature of thesurviving documents of Indian literature, w e are not yet in a position to tracewith any distinctness the rise and growth of the doctrine of transmigration,though he considers i t to admit of no doub t that the tenet in question wasgradually developed in India itself, and not introduced from any foreignc ountry . —Dr. J. Muir, Journal vol. i . 307.
xlviii INTRODUCT ION .
his teachings and communications,had for its main obj ect
to convince man that the plague -spot of his being is
attachment to sensuous obj ects . All the imagery is ihvoked that it is possible to summon to his assistance, that
he may impress upon his followers, w ith the greater power,the earthliness and sensuousness of their nature
,and the
necessity of getting entirely free from all worldly attrac
tions and entanglements, if they would enter the city of
peace,” and be for ever at rest . Of sin
,in the sense in
whi ch the Scriptures speak of it,he knows nothing . There
is no authoritative lawgiver,according to the Dharmma,
nor can there possibly be one ; so that the transgression
of the precepts is not an iniquity,and brings no gu ilt .
It is right that we should try to get free from its
consequences,in the same way in which it is right for
us to appease hunger or overcome di sease ; but no repent
ance is required ; and if we are taught the necessity of
being tranquil, subdued, and humble, it is that our mindsmay go out with the less eagerness after those things that .
un settle its tranquillity . If we injure no one by our acts,no wrong has been done ; and if they are an inconvenience
to ourselves only, no one else has any right to regard us astransgressors . The Dharmma has some resemblance to
the modern utilitarianism ; it is not, however, the produc
tion of the greatest possible happiness at which it aims,but the removal of all possible evil and inconvenience
from ou rselves .
Notwithstanding the materialism of his system, it must
not be forgotten that Buddha ackn owledges the existence
of an ethical power,both in relation to the individual and
INTRO DUCTION .
authority for its practice . In his conversations with the
brahmans he continually dwelt upon the inutility and
harm of sacrifice . In his mind there was connected with
every rite of blood the greater iniquity,as he regarded all
life as homogeneous, and to offer sacrifice was a transgression of the first of the precepts . In Buddhism
,therefore
,all
manner of sacrifice is rej ected, and it now knows no further
rite or ceremony than the repetition of the precepts in the
presence of the priest, the placing of flowers before the
image of the sage, and the occasional reading of the bana
on sacred days . But the system becomes thereby too cold
and abstract for the popular mind . Its mode of help is
too shadowy to impart confidence to man in the hour of
his trial . In Ceylon the people look to Buddhism for
deliverance as to the future world . By its instrumentality
they suppose that they can gain merit ; but for present
assistance, when the burden of affl iction is heavy upon
them,their resort is to the demon priest
,with his incan
tations and sacrifices .
There are one or two other characteristics of the system
that we may briefly notice, before concluding these remarks .
Buddha demanded an implicit submission to the doctrines
he enunciated He said,“ I know
,and therefore you
must believe . But to convince those who w ere not his .
followers that they were wrong,he argued with them in
the usual manner,generally by asking a series of questions,
by means of which he gradually brought them into anunexpected dilemma
,and made them stu ltify their own
propositions . The charge of novelty that might have
been brought again st the doctrines he taught, was set
INTRODUCTION . li
aside by his asserting that he knew, from the power of
intu ition,that they were the identical doctrines taught by
all former Buddhas, though entirely lost to the world after
the lapse of certain ages .
O n the supposition that the system of Gotama,as w e
have it now, was commenced in the period to whi ch it is
generally attributed,it is an interesting subject of enqu iry
how much O f it was original, and how much taken from
others,and what were the sources whence its borrowed
portions were derived . The principal works then in
existence were the Vedas ; and in them, so far as they are
accessible to a general reader like myself, it wou ld be difli
cult to discover even the semblance O f his more di stinctive
principles . Yet at this period there was an intense desire
manifested to investigate and understand all subj ects con
nected with mental philosophy, ethics, and religion . These
enqu iries were not, as in Greece, confined to the schools,but seem to have pervaded all classes of the community .
There was less that was aesthetic in’
the genius O f the
Aryan race than in that of the Hellenes,but there was
greater intensity of feeling on all subj ects connected with
man’s duty and destiny . In the fact that Buddha encoun ~
tered many rivals,whose power he confessed
,we have
evidence that he was not alone in the search after truth,or in the supposition that he had discovered it . Upwards
of five hundred years had passed ever since the appearance
of the earlier rishis . Of that interval,who shall tell the
story ? It appears,at present
,to be an impenetrable mys
tery . The dispersion of the Jews in the reign of Nebuchad
nez z ar could have little to do with the intellectual
lii INTRODUCTION .
position O f India at this period . The Aryan nations
w ere too proud and stern to have been stirred to activity
in so short a period . The destruction of the polity of the
ten tribes, which took place one hun dred and thirty yearspreviously
,may, however, have originated the undulation
that now swept over the land with so much power ; but
the contrast between the teachings O f the prophets of Godand the Tathégato is still greater than that between thePitakas and the Vedas .
The venerable leaves consulted by the magicians, the
astrologers,and the sorcerers
,in the doomed palace of
B elshazzar,might have thrown greater light upon this
enquiry than they did in relation to the hand-writingupon the wall ; but they are lost, and their secrets are
gone with them. The influence of the monarchs of Persia,who reigned from India to Ethiopia, must not be disregarded in our estimate of the causes that originated,o r the influences that directed, the philosophical speen
lations of the Hindus in the earlier ages of Buddhism,
The sages O f Greece may seem to have been too far away to
have made any impression upon the Sramanas or Brahmans
of India,though some of them are said to have visited
the far east ; but they have thoughts in common, that
appear to have been derived from one and the same source .
We have a more extended insight into the system of
Pythagoras than of any other O f the contemporaries
of Buddha . We see it through the mists thrown around
it by the writers of a later age ; but there is a strikingsimilarity between the thoughts and doings of the two
sages . They both itinerated. They both taught the
INTRODUCTION. liii
alternate destruction and renovation of the universe
that true knowledge is to be Obtained, not by the medium
of the ears or the eyes, but by abstract thought ; they
both instituted communities,and imposed upon their
followers a strict di scipline, insisted strongly on the
necessity of temperance to preserve the mind in unbroken
serenity, forbade the use of sumptuous garments, regarded
purity O f heart as of greater value than Offerings or
sacrifices,taught a oneness of nature between gods, men,
and animals,and made a di stinction between living above
nature and according to nature . This identity of sentiment
extended not merely to the outward life,but to the deeper
questions of philosophy . In teaching the doctrine of
transmigration,the Greek spoke O f a triad, and O f three
worlds ; he gave information to his disciples as to what
bodies he had previously inhabited,and under what cir
cumstances he had then lived ; his memory was perfect
as to past states O f existence ; he told others what sort
of persons they had been in former births ; and he made
known that there had been a gradual deterioration of the
human race, from a state O f original purity and peaceful
ness . The source O f the great philosophies O f the ancient
world seems to have been some region near the birth-place
of the nations ; and if we could summon from the past,and make audible
,the primitive langu age
,and reveal the
thoughts and imaginations then eliminated, we should have
a key by whi ch we could lay open and explain many an
enigma now clouded by misunderstanding or hid in utter
darkness .
We have referred to the difficulty O f comparing one
liv INTRODUCTION .
System of philosophy with another,from the difference
of meaning in the terms that are us ed ; and thi s becomes
the greater, when we set ourselves to the study of Hinduism
without a special training for the purpose ; because the
meaning we attach to many important terms is at variance
w ith that in whi ch they are regarded by the native mind .
Hence the numerous mistakes that have been made by
men of name ; first, as to the terms themselves, and then
as to the arguments they have founded on them. In not
a few instances, things that appear absurd to the western
student are no longer so when viewed through the medium
of the mind by which they are received,and from the
same premi ses . The Hindu does not clearly separate
matter from spirit ; but confounds the properties and
powers connected with each . Even thought is supposedto be a material operation . The whole of the outer world
is within us by the impression it produces . It is, therefore,not a reality, and is not something separate from u s
,except
in appearance . In like manner, we ourselves appear to be
without the un iversal Paramatma, though in reality
within we are one with God,and not di stinct existences .
The aim O f nearly all the philosophies of India is the
same,to free existent beings from the power of evil, and
its consequ ences ; but this is almost the only subj ect upon
which they agree . They nearly all,either in truth or
semblance, acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Soul ,though diflering as to the attributes they give to it ; but
as Buddha ignores the existence of any su ch Universality,there can be no agreement between him and the other
Hindu sages upon this most fundamental of all truths ;
INTRODUCTION .
and this one divergence includes and necessitates in
numerable variances . The Hindus do not believe in
creation, in the Semi tic sense of the term. They say
that something may come from something ; and though
they do not seek for any proportionateness between cause
and effect, they insist that something cannot come from
nothi ng ; all changes are but the revolutions of one originalexistence . These
,however
, are not the axioms of Buddh a .
He teaches that at the dissolution Of any given world,the destruction of the elementary materials composingit is complete
,no more of anything being left than
can be found in the void inside the drum ; and that
another world is produced de now . On another
subj ect of primary importance, the existence of the soul,Buddha is equally heterodox
,as regards the general
standard of Hindu phi losophies . They nearly all acknow
ledge the existence O f some kind of soul, though differing
widely as to its nature . One tells us that each person hasa separate soul
,pointing Out where it resides in the body .
Another tells u s that all soul s are one, and can have no
corporeal locality . Now we are informed that the soul is
a monad, an atom, an imperceptibly minute substance ;and then that it has existed from eterni ty and is infin itely
extended,having the same qualities as space and time .
But there were some of these old thinkers, who had right
ideas of the Office Of the soul , and described it as like
a charioteer who has the guidance of the horses attached
to a car .As to the evils to which man is subj ect, there is more
unison of thought between the two great systems O f India .
lvi INTRODUCTION .
It may be possible to set aside the great facts of the exist
ence of God and of a soul ; but no one can deny that thestate ofman is one that calls for some remedy, if a cure for
hi s miseries can be found . Yet the schools di ffer as to the
cause of evil . Wh ilst one says that it arises from theseparation O f the individual soul from the soul of the
universe, another affirms that it proceeds from the union
O f the soul and matter, and a thi rd teaches that it comes
from the restless activity that is natural to the soul ; whilst
Buddha proclaims,with wearisome prolixity
,that it is the
consequence O f attachment to the Obj ects that are apparent
to the senses . The remedy is the same verbally in nearly
all the systems : receive the truth, and it will make you
free ; but whi lst each system declares its own creed to be
the truth , the bewildered Hindu has to ask, amidst this
conflict O f opini ons and pretensions,What is truth
But the subj ect is interminable in its ramifications ;vast and complicated, as is all that proceeds from the
Aryan mind ; and O f ever-increasing interest in connexion
w ith the speculations of other thinkers on man and his
coming and going, his present and past existence, and his
immortality . These introductory remarks, though imper
feet,may at least throw some light upon the system,
and
enable the reader to understand more readily the chap
ters upon whi ch he will now enter . Further notices mustbe left to other expositors, or to a more favourable period
for research .
COLOMBO , CEYLON ,June 18th, 1865 .
2 LEGENDS AND THEO RIEs O F THE BUDDHISTS .
are not deceived in your first proposition ; then proceed
cautiously, having a reason for every step you take, and
for every conclusion to which you come ; and thus pro
ceeding, all fearlessly,you will attain, in the end, to
absolute verity,and will be able to maintain
,against all
comers, the position on which you take your stand .
” It
is the use of experiment,commencing
,not as formerly
from some conjectural basis, but with some simple andcertain truth
,that has led to nearly all the scientifi c dis
coveries of modern times, by which the condition of the
world has been changed to so great an extent . It is
authority that is now asked for in all departments of
science ; not the authority of names, but that of tried and
substantiated facts . To test the averments of history there
is the application of a similar rule,and no event is now
relied upon as certain, unless we have the evidence re
quired to verify its claim to our regard i‘“
2 . THE LEGENDS OF EARLY ROME .
The severe and searching scrutiny to which the records
and religions of all nations have had to submit, —as wellwith regard to their most minute particu lars as to their
great and essential principles—has torn from history some
of its pleasantest pages ; but many an error has been
“9 I leave out, for the present, all reference to immediate revelation. t en
any one claims to speak or act in the name of God, I have then to ask, Wh atare the proofs he can give me that he has received the commission O f God ?And i f I have to receive these proofs on the testimony O f another, I havefurther to ask
,Has the recorder had the Opportunity of knowing the certainty
of the statements he makes Is he a faithful recorder may I rely upon hisword without the fear of being led astray P And have the facts that he recordscome down to me as he wrote them, without corruption or alteration P
THE LEGENDS O F EARLY ROME . 3
thereby exposed,that was previously thought to be a truth
of God. The process by'
which the enquiry is carried on ,is of so sure a character, that however much, in some
instances,we may regret the consequences of its applica
tion, we are obliged to submit to its unimpeachable deci
sions . That my meaning may be the better understood, I
Will give an illustrative instance of the manner in which
the rule is applied to the history of ancient states . The
example I present is that of Rome . With what zest doesthe schoolboy devour
,when he reads
,perhaps by stealth,
the legend of the birth of Romulus and Remus " How
the,
daughter of king Numitor, Rhea Silvia, one of the‘
vestal virgins,had two sons, and was put to death for
violating her vow O f chastity ; how the children were ex
posed on a raft, by which they were carried down the
Tiber, until the frail vessel in which they lay, groundednear a fig
-tree, in one of the shallow s that afterwards
became famous as the Forum ; how a she-wolf there found
and suckled them, assisted in the reverent care she took of
her charge by a woodpecker,until they were discovered
by a shepherd,who carried them home, and brought them
up as his own children ; and how they afterwards learnt
the dignity of their descent,were acknowledged as the
grandchildren of Numitor,and founded Rome . The fig
tree was in existence,as well as the shepherd’s hut, in
historic times the story of the she-wolf was presented,both by painter and sculptor
,in works of art wrought
with the most exquisite skill and festivals were celebrated
to keep in remembrance the wonderful events, the divine
interpositions,connected with the founding of the eternal
4 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
city . But the whole has been proved by the unsparing
critic to be a mere legend, without any real authority ;and it has now to be set aside as unhistorical .” The
story can be traced back, in this form, only to a certain
distance in the ancient chronicles of the city . It is then
told in ways that contradict each other in important par
ticulars ; and it has also to struggle with other legends,almost equally rich in poetry
,but equally destitute of
foundation in truth . And at an earlier period still,there
is the burning O f the city, in which its archives are lost,and beyond that time all is uncertainty and confusion .
“ The claims of reason,
” we are told by Niebuhr,in re
ference to the subj ect before us,must be asserted, and we
are “ to take nothing as historical which cannot be his
torical.
”
3 . THE SINGHA’
LESE LEGEND O F KALYANI .
TO Show more clearly still ~ the manner in which these
conclusions are arrived at,I will apply the same process
to one of the earliest of the Singhalese legends,in itself
not.
without interest,and in some respects resembling the
story I have just repeated from the traditions of Rome .About the middle of the third century after the death of
Buddha,Ceylon was divided into several petty states
, and
among the rest was that of Kalyani (Calény) , O f which
Tissa was king. His wife was beautiful ; his brother,Uttiya, was a libertine ; and there was evil committed in
the royal household. But the king having heard of the
wrong that was done, sent secretly for a Rodiya, and
THE LEGEND O F KALYANI .
spoke to him thus : “ I will call together my retinue,including my younger brother, and I will say to thee, intheir presence
,Is there any one O f lower caste than thou
art and the reply then must make is, The king’s younger
brother is a meaner man than I am . This was accord
ingly done ; and the prince, thus put to shame, fled to
Udagampala ; but he contrived to send a letter to the
queen, by a messenger disguised as a priest, who was to
enter the palace with the rest of the priests when they
went to receive the usual alms . The letter was filled withthe common topics of a guilty lover ; but it had no name,nor was the place mentioned whence it came . The queen
was accustomed to assist at the giving of alms ; and as She
was looking towards the messenger,he took the opppr
tunity to let the epistle fall on the ground . Its fall, how
ever, caused a rustling noise, which attracting[
the notice
of the king,he took it up and on reading it he saw that
his queen was unfaithful to her exaltedd
position . Uttiya
had been the pupil of the high priest Of Kalyani, and
their hand-writing was alike . The king charged the high
priest with having written the letter ; listened to no pro
testations of his innocence and commanded him\
to be put
to death by being cast into a caldron of boiling oil . For
seven days the attempt was made to heat the O il, but it
still remained / cold but the priest,when a herdsman in a
former age, had acted contrary to the precept, by drowning
a fly that fell into some milk he was boiling, and for thisOffence
,though he escaped the death appointed by the
king, he was turned into a heap of ashes . The queen was
thrown into the river,and the messenger was cut in
6 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
pieces . But to punish the king for this act of impiety
towards an innocent priest,the dewas who protect Ceylon
caused the sea to encroach on the land, and much damage
was done to the country. To appease their wrath , as it
w as supposed that the country could be saved in no other
w ay, the king resolved to sacrifice his virgin daughter.
Placing her in a golden vessel,on which was inscribed the
word rajadhitati,” which signified that she was a royal
maiden,the vessel was committed to the waves of the sea .
But the flood still raged,until towns
,970 fisher
villages,and 470 villages inhabited by divers for pearls,
had been submerged .
”F As the king, from the back of his
elephant, was watching the progress of the devastation,the earth opened
,flame burst forth from beneath
,and he
was no more seen by his people . By this time twenty
miles of the coast,extending inland
,had been washed
away, and the distance from Kalyani to the sea was re
d uced to four miles . The royal virgin drifted towards the
d ominions O f the king O f Magam, when the vessel was
seen by some fishermen, who brought it to land . The
monarch Kawantissa, having heard of the wonderful cap
ture made by the fishermen,went to examine it ; and
when he had read the inscription upon it,he released the
princess from her confinement, and she became his queen .
The same legend informs us that , in a former age, the citadel of Rawana,25 palaces
,and streets , were swallowed up by the sea. This was on
ac count of the impiety of the giant k ing . The submerged land was betweenTuticoreen and Manaar
,and the island of Manaar is all that is new left O f
what was once a large territory . This legend , notwithstanding its manifestexaggeration as to the extent of the injury, may be founded on fact, as theIlmdu and other nations have a s imilar tradi tion
,and suppose that Ceylon
w as then much larger than it is at present .
THE LEGEND O F KALYANI . 7
As the vessel was brought to shore near a w ihz’tra, she
was called Wihara-dewi and she afterwards became the
mother of Dutugemunu,famous as the expeller O f the
Malabars from Ceylon . On the day on which the childwas named
,the king invited priests to the palace ,
who were presented with an alms-offering Of rice
milk.
This story,taken from the Raj awaliya and the Maha
wanso, cannot be received as true ; for the following
reasons,among others that might be named : 1 . We are
certain that at this time there could not be one hundred
thousand villages in a province SO far distant from the
seat of the principal government, or that 470 of thesecould have been inhabited by pearl divers .
)
There are no
ancient ruins here found that would indicate the existence
of a large population at this early period,though such
remains are abundantly presented in other parts O f the
island . 2 . It is equally improbable that the use of letters
should in this age (as we shall afterwards more distinctlynotice) and in those lawless times, have been so general an
accomplishment as it is here taken to be as, according to
the story,the two kings
,the prince
,the priest
,and the
queen, must all have been able to read ; and it must havebeen the supposition of the king that those who might
find the golden vessel would possess the same advantage .3 . The monarch Dutugemunu
,who bound on the royal
diadem in 161 B .C . is represented,in the record
"
where
these events are found,as being the great grandson of
Panduwasa, who became king in 504 For 343 yearswe have only four generations . 4. It is said that
LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
priests were present at the naming O f Dutugemunu .
‘
How could so small a province as that of Magam support
by alms so great a number of persons ; and how could the
king provide milk for the rice of all , in a country where
the traveller finds it difficult new to procure a single
measure ? 5 . The motive for the origin of the legend is
too apparent—the exaltation O f the priesthood . An inno
cent priest is put to death,upon presumptive evi dence of
his guilt . For this unintentional crime,a king loses his
life,his virgin daughter is sacrificed
,and more than one
hundred thousand villages are destroyed. How sacred
then,how divine, must be the character O f the priesthood,
if no inferior expiation could take away the consequences
O f the sin . 6 . We have no record of these events that we
can trace to the time when they are said to have occurred .
The date of the Rajawaliya we do not know ; that of the
Mahawanso is about A .D . 460 . These are the only sources
whence our information is derived ; and they are too
distant, or tO O uncertain, in their date, to allow of our
placing confidence in their statements about the reign of
Tissa . These Obj ections, independently of those arising
from the supposed interposition of the déwas; the awkward
introduction of the outcaste Rodiya,and the improbability
that the king would in this way proclaim his own dis
honour, are fatal to the credibility of the story . We can
only receive it as legend,in which there may be some
truth ;'
but to what extent no one can tell . It is in a
similar manner that all the events recorded of the past aresifted and examined by the modern historian
,in order
Turnour’
s Mahfiwanso,cap . xxu .
10 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
to shame every one who repeats it as a plea for oppression ;for
,though the Sudra proceeds from the foot
,he is equally
with the twice-born an emanation from Brahma ; still“ his Oflsprmg. The pretensions O f the Brahmans are
founded on a legend contained in the Jatimélé,of which
the following is a translation In the first creation by
Brahma, Brahmanas proceeded, with the Veda, from the
mouth of Brahma . From his arms Kshatriyas Sprung ;so, from his thigh, Vaisyas ; from his foot Sudras were
produced : all with their females . The Lord O f creation
viewing them,said
,
‘What shall be your occupation ? ’
These replied, We are not our own masters, O god, com
mand uS what to undertake Viewing and comparing
their labours,he made the first tribe superior over the
rest . As the first had great inclination for the Divine
sciences (brahmaveda) , therefore he was called Brahmana .
The protector from ill (kshayate) was Kshatriya . Him
whose profession (vesa) consists in commerce (which pro
motes the success of wars, for the protection of himself
and mankind) and in husbandry, and attendance on cattle,he called Vaisya . The other should voluntarily serve the
three tribes,and therefore he became a Sudra : he should
humble himself at their feet .” This legend has been
made to minister to an arrogance that has no equal in the
whole story of man’s usurpations . The Chandala,” says
Manu,
“ can never be relieved from bondage or emanei
pated by a master . How can he, whom the supreme Godhas destined to be the slave O f Brahmans, ever be released
from his destiny by man ? Whatever exists in the
Colebrooke,M iscellaneous Essays.
THE CASTE O F THE BRAHMANS . 11
universe is all,in effect, though not in form,
the wealth ofthe Brahman since the Brahman is entitled to all by his
primogeniture and eminence O f birth . The Brahman cats
but his own food, wears but his own apparel, and bestows
but his own alms . Through the (permissive) benevolence
of the Brahmans, indeed, other mortals enj oy life .”
The Jatimala is a comparatively recent work ; and
before we bow down,whether as Sudras or as Nishadas,
to the haughty Brahman,we require to have made known
to us,in order to secure our submission, some more ancient
authority ; something that comes to us from times nearer the
era of the supposed emanation . But it is a fact O f modern
discovery,that the further we go back in the history of the
Hindus, the fewer allusions we find to the subject of caste,until, in the Oldest of the Vedas it is a thing unknown .
O ne of the noblest among the many friends of India,Dr . Muir, now O f Edinbu rgh
,and late O f the Bengal Civil
Service, has set himself to the task O f collecting, from
every available source,the principal Sanskrit texts that
bear upon the social and religious interests of India ."
at Three parts of thi s work,entitled “ O riginal Sanskrit Texts, on the
O rigin and History of the People of India, their Religion and Institutions,”have been published . 1 . O n the Mythical and Legendary Accounts ofCaste. 2 . The Trans-Himalayan O rigin O f the Hindus
,and their Affinity
wi th theWestern Branches O f the Aryan Race. 3 . The Vedas : O pinions oftheir Authors, and of later Indian Writers , in regard to their O rigin,
Inspiration, and Authority . I regret that I have
,at present, access to only the third
Of these parts but I have made free use O f a series O f papers I wrote, at thetime of the publication O f the Texts
, in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine,
for 1861 . I have made extracts from Dr. Mu ir’s priceless volumes to agreater extent than might have been right under other circumstances ; as Iknow that gain is not his Object
, but the spreading of information that willadvance the interests of India . [S ince the above was written, a fourth parthas been published
,which I have not seen "
12 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
This important work he is executing with an industry and
erudition that demand the gratitude of all who are seeking
to place man in his proper position,as the free, noble, and
happy creature of a loving and mostmerciful God . There
is only one power that can bring about thi s grand con
summation ; but before we can expect that power to be
rightly effective a previous work will have to be done
many an error will have to be exposed, and broken many atyrant’s gyve .
The results of Dr . Mui r’s investigations on The Theory
of the Origin of Caste,
” are summed up in a section of so
much value,that I insert it without abridgment
The contents of this chapter [On the General Theoryof the Origin of Castes"have made it abundantly evidentthat the sacred books of the Hindus contain no uniform
and uncontroverted account of the origin of castes ; but,on the contrary
,present the greatest varieties of opinion
on the subject . Explanations,mystical
,mythical
, etymo
logical, and critical are attempted : and the freest scope is
given by the writers to fanciful and arbitrary conj ecture .“ First of all, we have the mystical statement of thePurusha Sukta, that the forefathers of the three superior
castes formed three of the members O f Burusha’s body,
while the servile issued from the feet . This, the Oldest
extant passage in which the castes are connected with the
d iflerent parts of the creator’s body, seems to have given
rise to all the subsequent representations to the same effect
in later works . The idea which it contains is repeated,with little substantial alteration, in two texts O f the
Bhagavata Parana : while, on the other hand, in passages
THE CASTE O F THE BRAHMANS . 13
cited from Mann, from the Vishnu Purana, and the Vayu
Purana,and in one extracted from the Mahabharata
,the
mystical character of the origin al Vedic text disappears,and the castes are represented as if literally p roduced from
the several members O f Brahma’s body . This theory is
not,however
,carried out consistently
,even in those works
where it is most distinctly preposed ; and the original
division of castes,after being lost sight of during the first
age of perfection, is again introduced at a later period in
such way as to necessitate a fresh explanation to account
for its re-appearance .“ By two other authorities, the Harivansa and the
Mahabharata,the origin O f castes is etymologically con
nected with colou rs (carna, the Sanskrit word for caste,meaning originally colour an explanation which
,how
ever fancifully carried out in these passages,is really
founded on fact as there can be no doubt that the Aryan
immigrants into India, coming from northern countries,were of fair complexion, while the aboriginal tribes, with
whom they came into contact,were dark . This circum
stance seems to be alluded to in the Vedi c text . ‘He
destroyed the Dasyu s,and protected the Aryan colour .
’
Again,attempts are made to explain the assumed charac
teristics of the several castes by fanciful etymologies of
their respective names ; the word Kshatriya being con
nected with p rotection, the name Vaisya with agriculture
and cattle, and the denomination Sudra with service. In
the case of the Brahman, indeed, the derivation is reason
able ; as his appellation is probably connected with brahma,prayer, or sacred learning, or the Veda .
LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
Finally, we have passages of a different tenor, as in aquotation from the Mahabharata
,in which the distinction
O f castes is derived from the different characters and
pursuits of the several sections of the community or such
as that other text from another part of the same work, in
whi ch men of all castes are said to be descended from
Manu .
”
In these discoveries,we have a powerful auxiliary in
the preparatory work that has to be undertaken for the
evangelizing of India, coming to us from an unexpected
source . It will now be a pleasant undertaking, to trouble
the Brahman with the same mantra spell wherewith hehas disquieted millions of men during more than two
thousand years ; and to proclaim to the Sudra the novel
intelligence, that the rishis, whom his oppressors so much
venerate,are his own friends
,and never gave the Brahman
any particle of the power he has wrongfully exercised
during so many ages .
I need not say to any one resident in this island, that
Buddha was uniformly the opponent of castefi‘ He pro
claimed the original equality of all men . He ordained his
priests equally from all classes of the people, and gave
them precedence according to the order of their initiation,
“ The hope of Ceylon arises from various causes, and w e shall herenotice the influence of caste on religion. I t is a fact that the Si nghalese are
not so much attached to the system o f castes,as are their neighbours on the
continent of India . Caste exists in Ceylon, but with greater force in India .Here i t is a mere custom—there a part of the national H indu institutes .Here i t is more political than religious—there more religious than pol itical .Here no man loses his caste by the adoption of a new faith—there the
Brahman becomes an u tter outcast by changing his creed . Though demurredto in this very place (the Hall of the Legislative Council) by the higher
THE CASTE O F THE BRAHMANS. 15
without regarding the circumstances O f their birth ,O r
their previous position . It was his doctrine, that it is the
greater or less development of the moral principle,that
makes the essential difference in the status of men .
Though it is too much to say that “ no hostile feeling
against the Brahmans finds utterance in the Buddhist
the opposition of Buddha to the principle of
caste was at first seen in the maintenance of an Opinion
contrary to that of the Brahmans, rather than in di rect
attack upon their system or express exposure of their
errors . The third Sutra records a conversation between
Buddha and the Brahman Ambatta, in which the sage
asserts the superiority of the Kshatriya caste . AnotherBrahman is referred to who was called the white lotus
,
”
from the colour of his skin . In the fourth Sutra, Sena
dandha, Buddha asks a Brahman of that name what it is
that constitutes a Brahman . Is it descent, learning, fair
ness of complexion, good conduct, or an acquaintance with
the rules O f sacrifice ? He then asks of these things
separately,whether, if the one he named were wanting,
the man would still be a Brahman . SOnadandha answered,that if a man had learning and good conduct
,he would
still be a Brahman, though he had not any other of the
classes of the Singhalese, w e, nevertheless, find all castes and classes meetingtogether in the jury box with the greatest harmony . All sit on the same formin the Christian churches ; all partake of the same cup when the wine i sdistributed at the Lord’s Supper . TheWellalas (the highest caste among theS inghalese) now follow different trades, which were anciently restricted to thelower orders, and occasionally marriages take place between persons ofdifferent castes . Caste is thus losing its iron grasp on the affections of theSinghalese.
”—Alw is’
s Lectures on Buddh ism, p . 30 .
Max Muller,jAncient Sanskrit Literature.
16 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
five advantages . This was the answer that Buddha
wanted to bring out, but it was not assented to by the
other Brahmans who were present . There is evident
a growing antagonism upon the part of the Brahmans ,from the time it became apparent that Gotama intendedto set aside their pretensions ; and we learn from more
than one of the Buddhist Sutras,that the theory of caste
was the subject of anxious investigation upon the part
of those who resorted for instruction to the hierarchs of
the system after his death .
Here Buddha is on the side O f truth ; as to principle,but not as to fact . It is the teaching of Buddhism
,that
’when our earth was first inhabited, the beings who
appeared in it were produced by the apparitional birth ;'
that their bodies still retained many of the attributes’of the world from whence they had come—the Abhassarabrahma-loka ; that there was no difference between nightand day
,and no difference of sex ; that they lived together
in all happiness and in mutual peace and that they could
soar through the air at will, the glory proceeding from
their persons being so great that there was no necessity
for a sun or moon . The dogma of the Brahmans can be
traced back,in their own books, until it becomes extremely
attenuated,and then altogether invisible . That of Buddha
is confessedly,as are all his other doctrines, the result of
his own intu ition and as there is no known fact to support
it,coming to us from any other source, it is to be regarded
as unhistorical,
” and to be rej ected.
18 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
down to us, there are changes and varieties that can onlybe accoun ted for on the supposition that it was once a
spoken language ; since it is only when a language ceases
to be spoken that it becomes set and unchangeable . The
Brahmanas,for instance
,equally differ from the ancient
Vedic hymns and from the more modern Sutras . These
hymns present various forms of inflection and conjugation
not seen in the works O f later authors, and are to be re
garded as by far the most ancient specimens of Sanskrit
literature now extant . By some disruption of the Sanskrit
speaking population the country became divided into
separate provinces,each of which
,in process of time,
had its own distinct dialect,from which has been
formed the present vernacular,whether it be Bengali,
Hindi,Mahrathi , or Gu z arati . The Tamul
,Malayalim,
and other languages of the Drav idian family,are not
included in this arrangement,for reasons that would
require, for their development, too long a digression
from our main Object . The process we have referred to
closely resembles the formation of the French,Portuguese,
Spanish , Italian, and other languages of modern Europe,from the parent Latin . There is also a remarkable resem
blance in the manner in which the phonetic changes are
made . In Pali all harsh sounds are avoided ; the letter r
is frequently omitted ; and one word is made to flow into
another wi th wonderful ease and rhythm. The style of
the language and the character of the religion taught in it
assimilate ; and few languages would have been equally
adapted for uttering the soft tones and gentle sayings of
the Tathagato. Parwata, a rock, becomes pabbata in Pali ;
THE SANSKRIT AND PALI LANGUAGES . 19
aswa, a horse, in a similar manner becomes asso ; rakta ,red
,ratta ; dharmma, truth, dhamma ; vriksha, a tree,
rukha ; sisya, a disciple, sissan ; sarpa, a serpent, sappa ;Singha, a lion, Siho ; and chaura, a thief, chOra. In com
position, as we learn from Clough’s Balawatara, lOka
aggo, the chief O f the world, becomes lokaggo ; and tatra
ayan, there is, becomes tatrayan.
The following positions have been established by Dr .Muir
1 . That these forms Of speech have all one commonorigin that Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, and Latin areall, as it were, sisters,—the daughters (some perhaps elderand some younger, but still all daughters) of one mother
who di ed in giving them birth : or, to speak without a
figure, that they are derivations from,and the surviving
representatives of, one older language, which now no
longer exists . And,2 . That the races of men who spoke
these several languages are also all descended from onestock ; and that their ancestors at a very early period
lived together in some country (situated out of Hindu
stan) , speaking one language ; but afterwards separated ,to travel away from their primeval abodes
,at different
times, and in di fferent directions, —the forefathers of theHindus, south-ward
,or south-eastward
,to Indi a ; the
ancestors of the Persians,to the south ; and those of the
Greeks and the Romans,to the west . The languages of
those branches of this great Indo-European stock which
remained longest together in their earliest home,—namely,the Pers ians and the Indians
,—continued to bear the '
closest resemblance to each other ; while the tongues of
20 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
those offshoots which separated earli est from the parent
stock exhibit in later times the least amount of resem
blance,the divergencies of dialect becoming wider and
wider in proportion to the length of time which had
elapsed since the separation .
”
It is thus evident that the ancestors of the dark and
dreamy Brahman, and of the pale and practical European,once chased each other under the shade O f the same tree,and lived in the same home, and had the same father, and
spoke to that father in the same language : and though
the difference is now great, both in outward appearance
and mental constitution,not more certainly do the answer
ing crevices in the cleft rock tell that they were once
united, than the accordant sounds in the speech O f the two
races tell that they were formerly one people ; and this
unity is proclaimed every time that they address father or
mother, or call for the axe, or name the tree, or point out
the star, or utter numbers . The Singhalese being alliedto the Sanskrit to an extent not surpassed by any other
vernacular now in use, there must have been a time when
the two races, the Ceylonese and the British , were far
more nearly related to each other than as being residents
in the same beautiful land, or subjects of the same gracious
queen . The resemblance in the languages that have beennamed will be more clearly seen from the following listof words , taken from Bopp
’s Comparative Grammar.
SANSKRIT . ZEND . LAT IN . ENGLISH .
p itri paitar r amp pater fat/zerb/zrcitri bartar (fipa
'
rpia. frater brother
4“ Band or brotherhood.
THE'
SANSKRIT sAND PALI “
LANGUAGES . 21
ZEND . LATIN . ENGLISH .
debug/liter
aspa equus lzor'
se
udmau due/ta nomen uame
stare ciafl jp ustrum star
upari upairi inre'
p super above( upper)du i dwa 8150 duo tu'o
tris t/zris rpt'
e ter t/zrice
scat kitscas é’
f sex six
tis/ztdmi lzistami form/ u sto stand
Here an interesting enquiry presents itself, By whatpeople was the Sanskrit originally spoken, and what wastheir origin or character ? The authors of the Sanskrit
books regard themselves,and the heroes of whom they
speak, asAryans, and their country is calledArya-bhumi or
Arya-desa . The word area, as may be learnt from theS inghalese Lexicon, means “ noble
,excellent, of respectable
lineage .” It was the national name of the ancient inhabitants O f India who worshipped the gods of the Brahmans,in contradistinction to the Dasyas, who are regarded as
barbarians or demons . The word is still preserved in Iran,the modern name for Persia, and even the green isle,Erin, may have derived its name from the still moreluxuriant east. In the earliest traditions we see the Aryansforcing their way across the snows of the Himalawana ; and
then, as they rush onward toward the sun-lit region that
lay at their feet,like the Paradise of which their fathers
had told them, they take possession of it as their permanent
home . In their Old songs there are allusions that prove thefact of their migration from a -colder country ; they are a
22 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS
fair race ; and in one O f the Brahmanas there is a tradition
that the first man,Manu
,descended from “ the northern
mountain,
” after a deluge . The Aryans advanced along
the borders of the great desert of Marvar,from the Sutlej
to the Saraswati ; and here they halted for so considerable
a period,that this region has since been regarded as sacred
ground . Theymust afterwards have spread themselves far
and wide,as in their more modern writings there are
numerous references to ships and maritime commerce ; and
it is evident that a language similar to Sanskrit was in use
on the sea-coast in the time of Solomon, as his ships are
said to have brought from the dis tant land they visited,
apes , ivory, peacocks, and algum trees ; the names of which,as they appear in the Scriptures, are Sanskrit rather than
Hebrew.
ale
It must be a source of extreme mortification to the lordly
Brahman,when he finds, upon evidence provided by him
self, and which he cannot controvert, that the language he
u ses,under the supposition that it is known only to himself
and the gods,is derived from the same source as the
language spoken by the races he regards with such utter
contempt,and from which he turns away with disgust as
from a pollution and a curse .
The Buddhists have put forth the same pretensions in
reference to Pali, that the Brahmans have done as to
Sanskrit. It is the language in which their sacred books,
the Pitakas,are written, and is sometimes called Magadhi .
The word Pali is unknown on the continent O f India . It
was the vernacular of the country in which Buddha lived ;Max Muller, Lectures on the Science of Language.
THE SANSKRIT AND PALI LANGUAGES . 23
and is thus spoken of by the grammarian Kachchayano“ There is a language which is the root (of all languages)men and brahmans spoke it at the commencement of the
kalpa, who never before uttered a human accent, and even
the supreme Buddhas spoke it : it is The same
statement is made in the PatisambhidaAtuwawa, and the
following extract is taken from the Wibhanga Atuwawa“ Parents place their children when young either on a cotor a chair and speak different things
,or perform different
actions. Their words are thus di stinctly fixed by their
children (on their minds) , thinking that such was said
by him,and such by the other ; and in process O f time they
learn the entire language . If a child born of a Damilamother and an Andhaka father should hear his mother
speak first, he would speak the Damila language ; but if
he should hear his father first,he would speak the Andhaka.
If however he should not hear either of them,he would
Speak the Magadhi . If, again, a person in an uninhabited
forest in which no speech ( is heard) should intuitivelyattempt to articulate words, he would speak the very
Magadhi . It predominates in all regions,such as hell
,
the animal kingdom,the petta Sphere
,the human world ;
and the world of the devas . The remaining eighteen
languages,Kiratha, Andhaka, Yenaka, Damila, etc . , un
derge changes, but not the Magadhi, which alone is
stationary,as it is said to be the language O f Brahman
and Aryas . Even Buddha who rendered his tepitakawordsinto doctrines, did so by means Of the very Magadhi ; and
why ? Because by doing so it was easy to acquire their
Appendix, Note A.
24 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTs .
true signifieations . Moreover, the sense of the words of
Buddha which are rendered into doctrines by means of the
Magadhi language,is conceived in hundreds and thous ands
of ways by those who have attained the Patisambhida, so
soon as they reach the ear,or the instant the ear comes in
contact with them : but discourses rendered into other
languages are acquired with
It is said,moreover, that all the birds of the air and
the beasts of the forest speak the same language ; but asthey cannot learn letters, they speak it indistinctly, andin a manner unintelligible to men . A similar thought tothe first has been entertained by many nations in behalf
of their own tongue, and even in modern times experiments
have been tried to find out the primitive language, butwithout any satisfactory result ; for if it were possible to
isolate children entirely, they would not speak at all, oruse a single articulate sound ; as may be seen in the caseof deaf mutes
,many of whom have all the organs of
speech perfectly developed, but as they never heard asound, they are not able, except in cases where they are
specially instructed, and with great labour, to make one,unless it be a murmur or a scream . There are tales among
all nations about persons who could understand the
language of bird and beast,that are popular in the
nursery, but are not repeated by men . The statement
is not correct that the Magadhi langu age has been“ stationary
,
” as there is a wide difference between the
style O f the text Of the Pitakas and that of the
Commentary . The Buddhist must, therefore, submit to
Alwis’s Lectures on Buddhism, p. 55 .
26 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
by his numerous retainers,cannot overpower
,that the
Older Vedas pay no respect whatever to the Brahmanthat they know nothing
,even by name
,of the gods he
teaches men to worship ; and that the rishis who composed
their most sacred portions,acknowledge themselves to
have been the same as other men in their ignorance and
weakness . As the Brahman and the Buddhist are alike
in their veneration for the rishis,the removal of the errors
so long prevalent,respecting these ancient sages, will not
be without some importance and significance in this island,as well as upon the continent.
The Vedas, when referred to in Pali works , are the
same,in name and number, as those of Sanskrit authors
Rich,Vajush
,Saman
,and Atharvana but Buddha,
when he referred to them,spoke of the Ti-weda . The
Buddhists regard the Atharvana as of less authority than
the other Vedas . They believe that they originally con
tained pure and unmixed truth, when uttered by Maha
Brahma,but that they have been corrupted by the Brah
mans tO suit their own purposes,and are not now to be
relied upon as a divine revelation . This thought would
be worthy of further notice,were it possible to test its
value ; but the memories of dead men cannot be called as
witnesses,and we have no written documents as our guide .
Each Veda consists of two parts : 1 . The Mantras, or
Hymns, in which the gods are praised, and their assistance
is invoked . 2 . The Brahmanas, illustrative and explana
tory of the Mantras,with the Upanishads, in which ex
pression is given to ideas of a more spiritual and mystical
character. The Mantras constitute the original and most
THE VEDAs. 27
essential part of the Veda. The Hymns are collected
together in portions called Sanhitas, which from the
archaic style in which they are written, are supposed to
be the Oldest part of the Veda . There are copies of the
Vedas in several of the libraries Of Europe, and portionsof them have been translated into English, French,German
,and Russian . By Max Miiller the Vedic litera
ture is divided into four periods : 1 . The Chhandas period,in which the first
,the Oldest hymns of the Rig Veda
were written,extending from 1200 to 1000 B .C . 2 . The
Mantra period,in which the more recent Vedic hymns
were composed ; lasting from 1000 to 800 3 . Then
came the Brahmana period, during which the chief theo
logical and liturgical tracts bearing this title were composed ; from 800 to 600 B .C . It was at the end of this
interval that Gotama Buddha appeared,according to the
chronology of the Singhalese . The authors of this period
appeal to various preceding unwritten authorities ; and
present the clearest proof that “ the Spirit of the ancient
Vedic poetry, and the purport Of the original Vedic
sacrifices,were both beyond their comprehension .
” 4 . The
Sutra, or most modern period, extended from 600 to 200
B .C ., in which the ceremonial precepts were reduced to a
systematic form . There can be no absolute certainty as
to these dates ; but they are not adopted without reason,or from mere conj ecture . There are no mile-stones in
Vedic literature ; but by the change in the character of
the scenery that presents itself,we can have some idea
of the di stance we have travelled. Not unfrequently,an
author refers to a previous author. There are d ifferences
28 LEGENDS AND THE O RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
in construction and metre . The gradual development of
a great system can be traced, from the figurative ex
pression,through the literal interpretation, to the aecom
plished fact and the established cus tom . There is a
perceptible change inmanners and usages,and the introduc
tion of new modes of thought, new restrictions, new laws,new ceremonies, and new gods . The influence of the ascetic
principle, at first scarcely seen, secures to itself from ageto age, a position of greater prominence . The further we
go from the present,the fewer are the personages intro
duced , whether divine or human, and there is a greater
simplicity and unity,both in liturgy and rite. By thus
sounding the stream of the past, and examining the sand
and shells that the plummet brings up from the depths
of other ages,the learned have criteria to guide them in
the judgment they form of the age in which the Vedi c
books were composed.
The worship prescribed in the earlier Vedas comprehendsprayers, praises, and Offerings ; the latter consisting princi
pally O f clarified butter poured on fire,and the in toxicating
juice of the Soma fruit. There is no reference in them to
the Trimfirtti, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva to Durga, Kali,or Rama or to any other of the gods that are at presentthe most popular in The principal deities are
Agni and Indra . Agn i, at once fire and the god O f fire,
is now regarded with indifference, and seldom worshipped .
Indra is a personification of the firmament as sending rain,
and is now ridiculed by the Brahman, although under the
name of Sekra, he is still honoured by the Buddhists .1" Wilson
,Rig-Veda Sanhita.
THE VEDAS . 29
In the most ancient hymns the uni ty of God is acknowledged ; just as we should infer it would be from the stillunshaken Pentateuch . We there find that up to the
time of the Exodus,there were men who, apart from the
teachings of Israel, worshipped the one true God, or
believed in his existence and might ." The path by which
man wandered away from primitive truth to polytheism
and idolatry can be seen most clearly in the literature of
the Hindus . In the earliest Of their forms of invocation,
germs Of error may be traced . The elements, in these
regions seen in their most sublime and terrific modes ofworking
,are personified. There is no mention of the
image of any god,nor is there any allusion to any form
of idol worship, and there is no formal temple ; but heaven
is regarded as the father of the universe, and earth the
mother . The stars are the radiant flock, held in captivity
by the god of storms, until set free by the sw ift arrows
of the god of lightning . The god of thunder has the wind
as his watch-dog, chasing the clouds as they career along
the sky, or acting as a faithful guide to lead the spirits
of the good to the realms above, beyond the broad river,
or the atmosphere, that separates the two worlds . All the
great changes that take place around us are described in
mystical terms ; and wherever there is movement thereis supposed to be the presence O f divini ty.
The social life O f the Vedic songs is more in accordancewith western usage . The family is instituted
,and the
dwelling fixed. The government is patriarchal . Everyman is priest in his own house, and his own hand kindles
Exod. xviii . . 9. Num. xxu . 8 .
30 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
the sacred fire . Marriage is monogami c . Woman is hadin honour
,and is a j oint ruler, and a j oint worshipper with
her husband . She is seen to move freely in the market,at the well, in the place O f worship, and in the palace .There then succeeds an era of greater formality and ex
elusiveness . Men w ith pleasant voices are employed to
chant the hymns ; the householder resigns his place ofprivilege ; and the hierophant pretending to sanctity is
entreated to present the sacrifice . These begin to form a
separate class,and to claimimmunities . Their pretensions
are resisted ; but they finally triumph, and the perfected
Brahman appears, claiming to be more than saint in puri ty,and more than king in power .
The Opinions entertained by the Hindus on the ori gin
of the Vedas are varied and contradi ctory . There are no
fewer than twelve di fferent deliverances on this subj ect .In the following analysis the supposed source is given
,
and then the au thority upon which the statement is made,
from some sacred book , but not Vedic . 1 . The elements .
i“ P rajapati brooded over the three deities (fire, air, and
the sun) , and from them, so brooded over, he drew forth
their essences—from fire the Rig Veda, from air the Vajush,and from the sun the Sama verses . Chandogya Hpani
shad . 2 . The mouth of B rahma, at the creation.
“ Oncethe Vedas sprang from the four-faced creator, as he was
meditating, How shall I create the aggregate worlds as
before ? He formed from his eastern and other monthsthe Vedas called Rich, Yajush, Saman and Atharvan,together with praise, sacrifice, hymns, and expiation .
”
Bhagavat Purana, iii . 12 . 3 . The breath of Brahma.
THE VEDAS . 31
As from a fire made Of moist wood various modificationsof smoke proceed, so is the breathing of this great Being
the Rig Veda,the Yajush, the Sama, the Atharvan,
the Itihasas, Puranas, science, the Upanishads, l kas,
aphorisms,comments of different kinds—all these are his
breathings .” Vrihad Aranyaka Upanishad . 4 . The
creative power of Brahma. In order to the accomplish
ment of sacrifice, he formed the Vedas : with these the
Sadhyas worshipped the gods, as we have heard .
” Hari
vansa, v . 47 . The god fashioned the Rig Veda, withthe Vajush
,from his eyes
,the Sama Veda from the tip of
his tongue,and the Atharvan from his head . These
Vedas, as soon as they are born, find a body. Hence they
obtain their character of Vedas because theyfind (vindanti)that abode .” Harivansa, v . 11 . 665 . 5 . Sarasvati.
Behold Sarasvati, as the mother of the Vedas l Maha
bharata, v . 12,920 , 6 . Themystical rite P urush.
“ Fromthe universal sacrifice were produced the hymns called Richand Saman the metres
,and the Yajush . Purusha Sukta.
7 . Time. From time the Rich verses sprang ; theVajush sprang from time . Mann, xii . 49 . 8 . From the
residue of the sacrifice.
“ The Rich and Saman versessprang from the remainder O f the sacrifice
, u chchhista.
”
Atharva Veda, xi . 7 . 9 . Thepure princip le The Veda
constitutes the second division of the sattva-guna, BraM a
being one of the first .” Mann, xii . 49 . 10 . Eternity .
“ The Sruti derived from Brahma is eternal ; these 0
Brahman,are only its modifications . ” Vishnu P arana
,
Wilson’s Trans . p . 285 . 11 . Vishnu .
“ He is composed
of the Rich, of the Saman, of theVajush ; he is the soul.
32 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
Formed of the Veda he is divided ; he forms theVeda and its branches into many divisions . Framer ofthe branches, Sakhas, he is also their entirety, the infinite
lord, whose essence is knowledge .’ Vishnu P arana
,
p . 274. 12 . Emanation. The Veda was not the result
of effort proceeding from the conscious intelligence of any
individual .
The confusion arising from the differences between one
author and another is increased by the contradictions in
the writings O f the same author . He who comprehends,
”
says Mann,“ the essential meaning O f the Veda
,in what
ever order of life he may be, is prepared for absorption in
Brahma,even when abiding in this lower world .
” This
virtue is said to extend to all the Vedas . Just as a clod
thrown into the lake is dissolved, when it touches the
water,so does all sin perish in the triple Veda .
” Yet in
another place he says, “ The Sama Veda has the pitris
(sprites) for its divinities, wherefore its sound is impure .”
In another place he asserts the impurity of this Veda,
for another reasonfi"
By another class of writers, all of whom are regarded
as orthodox, the Vedas are placed on a level with otherworks
,or degraded below them. First of all the Sastras
,
the Parana was uttered by Brahma . Subsequently the
Vedas issued from his mouths . Vziyu Parana, i . 56 . OnePurana speaks of “ the errors of the Vedas,
” and in an
Upanishad they are designated as “ the inferior science,
”
in contrast to “ the superior science,” the knowledge O f
the soul . There are other authors and schools that rej ect
Muir's Sanskrit Texts : Part iii.
34 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
for further ages—I am more than reconciled to both careand cost .
To the following important extracts,I ask the attention
of my island friends , and as there are many of them who
will understand the original, I insert the Sanskrit text, as
well as the translationf"
The rishis describe themselves as the composers of the
hymns, as will be seen from the following passages t1 . Passages in which the word kri
,to make, is applied
to the composition of the hymns .“ Ayamdevaya janmane stomo viprebhir asaya akari
ratnadhatamah. This hymn,conferring wealth
,has been
made to the divine race, by the sages, with their
month ”
: 1 .
“ Eved Indraya vrishabhéya vrishne brahma akarma
Bhriyavo na ratham. Akari te harivo brahma navyam
dhiya syama rathyah sadasah . Thus have we made a
prayer for Indra,the productive, the vigorou s, as the
Bhrigu s (fashioned) a car . A new prayer has been
made for thee, O lord of steeds . May we through our
hymns (or rite) become possessed of chariots and perpetual
wealth .
” iv . 16, 20 .
I know little of Sanskrit, except as the parent of S inghalese ; and I amtherefore indeb ted to other writers for nearly all the information I presentabou t the Brahman and his l iterature ; the only exception being in those casesin which illustrative reference is made to Buddhism, or extracts are made fromnative books .1
‘ YetMax Mu ller, one O f our great authorities upon these subjects, says ;In the most ancient (Sanskrit) literature, the idea even of authorship is
excluded . lVQrks are spoken of as revealed to and communicated by certainsages , but not as composed by them.
” Ancient Sanskrit Li terature,523 .
1“ With their own mouth .
” Wilson.
THE RISHIS O F THE BRAHMANS . 35
2 . Passages in which the word tax , tofashion or fabri
cale, is applied to the composition O f the hymns .
Esha vah stomo Maruto namasvan hrida tashto
manasa dhéyi dey ah . This reverential hymn, O divineMaruts, fashioned by the heart, has been presented by the
mind .
” i . 130,6 .
Etam te stomam tuvi-j ata vipro ratham na dhirab
svapa ataxam. I,a sage, have fabricated this hymn for
thee,O powerful (deity ) as a skilful workman fashions
a car . v . 29 . 15 .
3 . Texts in which the hymns are spoken of as being
generated by the rishis .
Suvriktim Indraya brahma janayanta viprah . The
sages generated a pure hymn and a prayer for Indra .”
vii . 31 , 11 .
ImaAgne matayas tubhyam j atah gobhir asvair abhi
grinanti rédhah . These hymns, Agni, generated for thee,supplicate wealth with cow s and horses . x . 7 . 2 .
These extracts are selected from several hundreds of a
Similar description , collected by the care of Dr . Muir.
Further’
extracts, from Professor Wilson’s translation of
the same Veda,will throw additional light on the character
of the rishis .
Thu s they pray
May he (Indra) be to us for the attainment of our
Objects ; may he be to us for the acquirement of riches ;may he be to us for the acquisition of knowledge may he
come to us with food .
” Sukta, ii . 3 .
“ May the Maruts,
born from the brilliant lightning,everywhere preserve us
and make us happy.
” xxiii . 12 . Inasmuch as all people
36 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHIS I‘
S .
commit errors, so do we, divine Varuna , daily disfigure
thy worship by imperfections : make us not the obj ects of
death .
” xxv . 2 . Destroy every one that reviles us ; slayevery one that does us inj ury Indra, of boundless wealth ,enrich us with thousands of excellent cows and horses .”
xxix . 7 . Come,let us repair to Indra (to recover our
stolen cattle) , for he, devoid of malice, exhilarates our
minds ; thereupon he w ill bestow upon us perfect know
ledge of this wealth (which consists ) of kine .” xxxiii . 1 .
“ Thrice, Asw ins, visit our dwelling and the man who
is well di sposed towards us ; thrice repair to him who
deserves your protection,and instruct us in threefold
knowledge : thrice grant us gratifying (rewards) ; thrice
shower upon us food, as (Indra) pours down rain .
” xx xiv .
4 .
“ Agni,with the burning rays
,destroy entirely our
foes, who make no gifts, as (potters’ ware) with a club ;
let not one who is inimical to us,nor the man who attacks
with sharp weapons , prevail against us .” xxxvi . 16 .
Discriminate betw een the Aryas and they who are
Dasyus ; restraining those who perform no religious rites ,compel them to submit to the performer of sacrifices .”
1 1 . 8 .
“ Agni confer excellence upon our valued cattle,
and make all men bring us acceptable tribute . ” lxx . 5 .
“ May thy opu lent worshippers,Agni
,obtain (abundant)
food ; may the learned (who praise thee) and offer thee
(oblations) acquire long life ; may we gain in battles
booty from our foes , presenting to the gods their portion
for (the acquisition of) renown . lxxiii . 5 .
“ Defended,
Agni,by thee
,may we destroy the horses (of our enemies)
by (our) h o r ses,the men by (our) men, the sons by (our)
THE RISHIS or THE BRAHMANS . 37
sons,and may our sons, learned, and inheritors of ancestral
wealth,live for a hundred winters .” lxxiii . 9 . Thou,
lord of all,knowest what are the riches of those men who
make no offerings : bring their wealth to us .” lxxxi . 9 .
“ The Soni a juice has been expressed, Indra, for thee ;potent humbler (of thy foes) , approach ; may vigour fillthee (by the potation) , as the sun fills the firmament with
his rays . lxxxiv . 1 . Dissipate the concealing darkness :
drive away every devouring (foe) ; show us the light we
long for . ” lxxxvi . 10. Come into our presence ; they
have called thee,fond of the Soma juice ; it is prepared ;
drink of it for thine exhilaration vast of limb, distend thy
stomach,and
,when invoked
,hear us, as a father (listens
to the words of his civ . 9 .
“ Kutsa, the Rishi ,thrown into a well, has invoked to his succour, Indra, the
slayer of enemies .” cvi . 6 .
“ Asw ins,you raised up
,like
Soma, in a ladle, Rebha, who for ten nights and nine dayshad lain (in a well) , bound with tight cords, wounded,immersed, and suffering distress from the w aterfi“ Thus,Asw ins
,have I declared your exploits : may I become the
master (of this place) , having abundant cattle, and a
numerous progeny, and retaining my sight, enj oy a long
life : may I enter into old age, as (a master enters) his
house .” cxvi . 24, 25 .
In the later hymns of the Sanhita, there is a continuance
of the same form of supplication,and the request is still
Rebha and Vandana (also cast into a well) are said to have been rishis .
“ In these and similar instances, we may possibly have allusions to the
dangers undergone by some of the first teachers of Hinduism among thepeople whom they sought to civi lise.
” Professor Wilson. But it seems muchmore likely that it was on account of some cattle raid.
38 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS
presented for “ food,strength, and long life . Allusions
to the town and its customs,and to the cultivated field,
aremore frequent ; but the c ow and the horse are still the
most prominent obj ects before the worshipper , and he asks
Now, as in formerfor protection from dogs and wolves . ’
instances,when the rishis ask for anything, they ask it for
themselves . They are not intercessors, vicariou sly plead ing
with the gods . Conquer for as ; fight for as .
” cxxxii . 4 .
May we acquire riches, in the strife of heroes .”
olvn . 2
May we overcome our mighty and formidable foes .
clxxviii . 5 .
“ Let us , through thy favour, overwhelm allour foes
,like torrents of water . II . vii . 3 .
As we read these extracts, the impression is made upon
o ur minds,that they are very like the revel- songs of some
band of moss-troopers, gone forth to levy black-mail ; andperhaps this thought is not very far from the truth . As
the Aryans descended from the mighty hills where they
mu st for some time have lingered, and spread desolation
in the plains below, nothing could be more natural than
many of the sentiments and wishes here expressed . They
Were a young nation, full of life and hope, migrating to
another land, that they might seek a richer inheritancethan that of their fathers , and were opposed in their
progress by powerful enemies . The rishis were nu
doubtedly, in some cases at least, warriors as well as
makers of songs ; the hand red with blood might mix
the intoxicating soma ; and we can imagine some of their
hymns sung by the whole clan immediately previous to an
attack upon the Dasyas, rich in flocks and herds,or after
some successful foray, when the low of the stolen kine
THE RISHIS or THE BRAHMANS . 39
would mingle with the voice of praise to the power thathad given them their prey . We have here more than
enough to convince us that the framers of the Vedas were
ordinary men, making no pretension to the wonderful
powers with which they have been invested by the
Brahmans . The Vedas are a purely human production ;the confessions and invocations of the rishis themselves
being our warrant for this conclusion . The religious
element is scarcely apparent,in many of the Sanhitas ;
for prey, and not purity, the request is presented. There
are occasionally hymns that rise above this low estimate
of rishi piety,in which are passages of great poetic beauty .
With some notion,however vague, of the unity of God,
they address the elements as his agents or representatives .
They see these elements, now for the first time in their
tropical energy ; and intense emotion is stirred within
their souls, as they appeal to the gleaming sun , the rapid
lightning, and the dark storm-cloud,lying low in the sky
from the weight of the abundant treasure it contains,with
which it is ready to fill the exhausted well and fertilizethe parched wilderness .
The claim set up by the Brahmans for the supernatural
inspiration of the rishis cannot be maintained . We speak,in common phrase, of the inspiration of the poet . All ages
and nations have done the same . The poets themselves are
accustomed, like Milton, to ask light and aid from heaven .
“ And chiefly,Thou
, 0 Spirit, that dost preferBefore all temples
,the upright heart and pure,
Instru ct me.
What in me is dark,I llumine what is low raise and support."
40 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
But we do not, on that account, approach the poet as
we should one whom we thought was in the possession of
super-human intelligence . Many of our rhymers are no
more sorcerers than the dullest prose writer that ever wroteon palm-leaf or paper . Just in the same way, the rishi
of the Brahman,looked at as a hymn-maker
,is a harmless
kind of being,respectable, sometimes religious, and some
what austere,asking for divine gui dance almost in the
very words his brother poets have used in all time,for
the same purpose ; and claiming for himself neither irre
sistible power, like the wicked Mara , nor unerring intuition,like the teacher Buddha . There is thus another race of
imaginary beings sw ept away, with the genii and ghouls
of our childhood,from the dreamland that has been the
dread of many generations ; and the whole world will soon
learn that man has been his own greatest enemy,and that
he has suffered the more,the further he has wandered away
from the voice of the God who loves him.
Nearly the whole of the Himalayan mass of laterSanskrit lore will have to be set aside as incredible . Itis the result of wilful perversion and pretence ; it tells ofevents that could never, by any possibility, have happened,and of beings that could never
,by any possibility, have
lived . It will always be interesting, as the record of man’s
wondrous power of creativeness, within a certain limit, and
of his ability to fascinate and mislead those whom he seeks
to bind and blind ; but when the genius of history shallappear in her full maj esty
,She will allow no stately temple
to the kings of the Brahman , and to his warriors no Victor’s
crown .
42 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
atrribute to these venerated sages is scarcely inferior tothat of the rahats, which we shall have to notice at greater
length by and bye . By S inghalese authors they are re
presented as being possessed of super-human attributes .
In seeking to obtain n i rwana, it is a great advantage
to have been a rishi in a former birth . The rishi can
tell, by his own intui tive knowledge, the nature of alldiseases
,and prescribe for them an infallible remedy .
When he wishes for mangoes, or any other fruit, he can
go through the air and take them . He can comprehend
space . He can assume any form. He can destroy fifty
cities, if he so wills it . He can tell how many drops thereare in the ocean
,and number the living creatures that
inhabit it ; and can tell how many spans there are in the
sky, and how many atoms in Maha Meru, though it is
nearly a mill ion of miles high . He can dry up the sea,though in one place it is eight hundred and forty thousand
miles deep . He can hide the earth with the tip of his
finger, and shake the whole of the Himalayan forest, with
all its mountains,with as much ease as if it were a ball of
thread .
When the power of the rishis is presented as a com
parison, which is a common practice wi th native authors,
it is spoken of, if possible, in still more extravagant terms .
The gods are sometimes envious of the elevated o position
to which they attain , and fearing lest they themselves
should be superseded, and thereby lose their high and
privileged positions,they resort to the meanest and most
unwarranted schemes to accomplish their downfall . Thethrone of Sekra (Indra) having become warm, he knew
THE BAHATS AND RISHIS on THE BUDDHISTS . 43
thereby that his celestial supremacy was in danger ; and
when looking to see whence it proceeded, he discovered that
it came from the meritorious observance of the precepts
by the rishi Lomasa Kasyapa . To induce the sage to take
life,by slaying the animals at a sacrifice, and thus commit
evil,the dewa persuaded the king to call him to the
performance of this rite,by sending his daughter to the
forest in which he lived . Spell-bound by the beauty of
the princess,he consented to accompany her to the city
for this purpose ; but when about to uplift the sacrificialknife
,the plaintive cry of the animals brought him to his
senses, and he returned at once to the forest, thereby
preserving his great merit still intact.
The Vedas are declared by Buddha, as previously stated,to have been corrupted by the Brahmans . The aged
brahman, Drona,—who, at the sage’s cremation, secretedone of his bones as a relic, in his hair, but was afterwards
deprived of it by the dewas,—on visiting the teacher of
the three worlds, asked him whether, if an aged Brahman
were to visit him,he would rise and offer him a seat .
Buddha replied that he could not do so,as it would be
highly improper ; and asked Dro'
na if he regarded him
self as a true Brahman . The reply that he made was“ If one who is descended from a father and mother that
are both of pure race,who can trace his descent as equally
pu re through seven generations,and knows the Veda
perfectly, is to be regarded as a Brahman , then am Ione .
”But Buddha denied that the Brahmans were then
in the possession of the real Veda . He said that it was
given in the time of Kasyapa (a former supreme Buddha)
44 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
to certain rishis,who, by the practice of severe austerities ,
had acquired the power of seeing with divine eyes .
They were Attako,Wamako, Wamadew o , Wessamitto ,
Yamataggi, Angiraso, Bharaddwajo, Wasetto, Kassapo,
and Bhagu . The Vedas that were revealed to these rishis
were subsequently altered by the Brahmans,so that theV
are now made to defend the sacrifice of animals,and to
oppose the doctrines of Buddha . It was on account of
this departure from the truth , that Buddha refused to pay
them any
At another time , when Buddha resided at Jétawana,there were several aged Brahmans of the Maha Séla Kula,who came to visit him. (To belong to this kula, a
Kshatriya must possess 100 kotis of kahapanas, and
spend daily 20 amunams of treasure ; a Brahman 80
kotis, and spend 10 amunams ; and a Grahapati 40 kotis,and spend 5 These Brahmans resided in
Kosol, and were senile and decrepit, as they had lived in
the reigns of several kings . They sat respectfully on
one side, and said to Buddha, “ Do the present Brahmans
follow the same rules,practise the same rites
,as those in
more ancient times ? ”He replied
,N They then re
quested,that if it were notinconvenient
,he would be pleased
to declare to them the former Brahmana Dharmma. He
then proceeded : There were formerly rishis,men who had
subdued all passion by the keeping of the sila precepts
Anguttara Nikfiya : Panchaka Nipata .
1: I t i s to be understood throughout, that when, in quoting from the
Pitakas, words appear within parentheses,they are taken from the
Commentary, and not from the Text .
46 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
Brahman, that seeks a wife lest his race should becomeextinct
The Brahmans, for a time, continued to do right, and
received in alms rice, seats, clothes, and oil, though theydid not ask for them. The animals that were given they
did not kill ; but they procured useful medicaments from
the cows,regarding them as friends and relatives
,whose
products give strength , beauty and health . The Brahmans,
(not killing animals in sacrifice) had soft bodies, of a
golden colour, and great prosperity . Through their
abstinence from evil, other beings enj oyed a similar state
of happiness and repose . But by degrees they saw and
coveted the wealth of kings, as well as females richly
arrayed,chariots drawn by horses of the Ajanya breed
(that knew the mind of their owners, and took them
whither they w illed to go, without any guidance) and
elegant bu ildings . In this way their minds became
corrupted . They resolved to ask kings to make animal
sacrifices . By this means the passions of the Brahmans
became increased . They thought that if the products of
the cow were so good, the flesh of the cow must be much
better . The king O kkaka, at their instance, instituted a
festival of sacrifice . \Vhen the animals were assembled,
the king slew the first with his own sword, gashing them,
and pulling them cruelly by the horns, though previously
to this time they had remained free from injury or mo
lestation . The Brahmans then slow the rest . Because of
this butchery,the dewas and asurs cried out, There is un
righteousness,unrighteousness, among men ; (so loudly
that all over the world it was heard) . Prior to this period,
THE RAHATS AND RISHIS OF THE BUDDHISTS . 47
there were only three kinds of d iseases among men ;carnality
,hunger
,and decay. There are now 98, of
various kinds . The Vaisyas and Sudras are opposed to
each other . The Kshatriyas are at war among themselves .
Husband and wife are at variance . And all castes mingle
together in lewdness and vice . The Brahmans, when they
had heard this discourse of Buddha, embraced his religion ,and said they would become upasaka devotees to the end
of their lives ."
It is evident,from these statements, that Buddha was
ignorant of the former condition of the world ; that he
knew nothing about the character and circumstances of the
ancient rishis ; and that he spoke from imagination alone,and not with the authority of truth . Nearly every hymnof the Rig Veda contradicts his statements ; and thewhole array of tradition , legend, and history is opposed to
his theory of the origin of cruelty and crime among men .
It may be said, that if the Vedas have been corrupted,though the statements of Buddha are contrary to them
,
these statements are not thereby invalidated . But, how
was it possible to alter the Vedas to this extent It cou ld
not be done after they were committed to writing,and
before this the Brahmans who preserved them were
scattered over a country a thousand miles in breadth .
Long before the time of Buddha there were rival sectsand schools among the Brahmans
,who would watch each
other’s proceed ings with all j ealousy,and render it im
possible for them to concert any scheme to alter, in any
Brahmana Dhammika Suttanta.
48 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
degree, the word that they regarded as eternal and the
breath of the supreme Brahm.
In the mistakes and misrepresentations of many of the
Brahmans, who were contemporaries of Gotama, as to thepower of the rishis
,the sacred books of Buddhism
partake to an equal extent . They tell us,that his
father,Suddhédana
, had a rishi friend, Kaladéwala.
After breakfast this aged sage was accustomed to visit
one of the celestial worlds,and watch the ways of the
dewas ; and he there learnt that a supreme Buddha was
about to appear among men . He could see backward 40
kalpas, and forward the same period, and know the events
in each .
The following narrative is ascribed to Buddha himself,and appears in the Jatakattha-katha . There was a priest,Pindola Bhéraddwaja, who went to the garden of the
king of Udeni, to spend the day in retirement. The king,on the same day, went to the same garden, attended by a
retinue of women, upon the lap of one of whom he placed
his head,and fell asleep . When the other woman saw
that the king was no longer listening to them,they put
down their instruments of music and went to w alk in the
garden . On seeing the priest,they worshipped him
,
and he preached to them the bana . When the kingawoke
,he was annoyed that the other women had left
him ; and on discovering the priest, he resolved that he
would tease him,by causing red ants to sting him. But
Pindola Bharaddwaja rose up into the air, and after giving
the king some good advice,went through the air to
Jétawana, and alighted near the door of Buddha’s resi
50 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
obtain the nobleman’s daughter as his wife . His request
was, of course, indignantly rej ected but there he remained
six days, and on the seventh (to save the family from the
still greater disgrace and inconvenience that would have
come upon it if he had perished at their she was
brought and given to him ; when she, respectfully, saidshe was w illing to go to his village . But he replied that
her attendants had beat him so cruelly that he could notrise, and that she must carry him on her back . She was
obedient, and did as she was commanded . On the seventhday, without having had any intercourse with her mean
while, he thought within himself, I must enrich this
maiden, by causing her to receive greater wealth andhappiness than any other woman ; but this cannot be
unless I become a sramana priest .” Then saying to her
that he was going to the forest to provide the food they
needed, and that She must not be uneasy until his return,
he went away. On the seventh day after he had takenupon himself the obligations
, and assumed the garb of a
priest, he attained to samapatti (the completion of an
ascetic rite that confers supernatural powers) . He then
returned to the village through the air . When his wife
asked him why he had become a priest,he said she must
inform the people of Benares,that on the seventh day
from that time her husband would appear as Maha Brahma,and cleave the moon in two . On the day of the full moonhe apppeared as he had said, illuminating by his bright
ness the whole of the city, 120 miles in extent . In the
Had this misfortune occurred, the whole family would have lost caste forseven generations .
THE RAHATS AND RISHIS on THE BUDDHISTS . 51
presence of the citizens, he caused the moon to cleave into
two portions, and then descending went thrice round the
c ity through the air.
On seeing this those who were worshippers of MahaBrahma went to the house ofMatanga, presented offerings
of untold value,and ornamented his dwelling in the richest
manner. He then made known to his wife, »that through
umbilical attrition alone she would have a son ; that thewater in which she bathed would be sought for with
eagerness by the people,as it would free them from all
disease and misfortune ever after ; and that those who saw
her would each offer to her a thousand (kahapanas) . The
followers of Maha Brahma provided for her a goldenpalanquin
,and took her to the city, where they built for
her a splendid pavilion ; and as she there brought forth
her son, he was called, in consequence, Mandabba. When
grown up, he daily fed Brahmans . But his father
Matanga, seeing by this means he was arriving at the
wrong landing place (in his effort to obtain salvation)went through the air
,and alighting at the place where
the alms were distributed, took hi s seat on one side ; butwhen Mandabba saw him, he commanded him to be off
quickly, as there were no alms there for such as he .
When the attendants were preparing to take him away,he rose up into the air, and after repeating other gatha
stanzas,said, They who attempt anything against the
rishis, are like men who attempt to scrape the rough rock
with the finger nail, or to bite through hard iron with theirteeth, or to Swallow fire .” After this Matanga w ent
through the air towards the east gate of the c ity, causing
52 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
his footsteps to remain, as he went from place to placewith the alms-bowl . The dewas of the city, enraged atthe insult he had received
,caused the head of Mandabba
to be turned the wrong way on his shoulders, and the
Brahmans to vomit, and then roll themselves on the
ground, utterly disabled . When Ditthamangalika heardof what had taken place, she went to enquire what was
the cause ; and when she had seen her son, his eyes white
like those of a dead man, and his body stiff, she said thatthe sramana who had come to ask alms could be no one
els e but Matanga,and resolved that she would go to him
and ask pardon for her son . By his footsteps she dis
covered the place where he was . He was just finishing
hi s meal, leaving a small portion of rice in the bowl . She
poured water from a golden vessel,with which be washed
his mouth,and then ej ected it into the same vessel. When
the mother asked pardon for Mandabba, the rishi said that
the injury was not done by him ; he had felt no anger
when he was insulted, neither did he feel any anger then
it was the demons that had done it Your son,
” said he,
has studi ed the Vedas until he is intoxicated by them ;
but he is ignorant of that which is proper to be done,in
order to produce the result at which he aims . She still
pleaded in his behalf. He then said that he would give
her a di vine medicine ; and that if she took half of the rice
from the bowl,and put it into her son’s mouth , and the
other half into the mouth of the Brahmans, mixed with
water (from the golden vessel) , they would all ‘ recover .
He also informed her how the persons were to be knownwho were proper to be the recipients of alms . The
54 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
that the sun mi ght be released if Jatimanta would humblehimself at his feet. They therefore dragged the Brahmanto the place where the rishi was ; but even when he had
worshipped him,Matanga still refused to let the sun rise,
because, if it rose the head of the Brahman would be split
(as a punishment for the curse he had uttered) . The
people asked what, in such a case, was to be done ; when
he told them to bring clay, and therew ith cover the
head of Jatimanta, and take him to the river up to his
neck . This was done ; the sun was then permitted to rise ;and its rays caused the clay to cleave into seven portions
(as a merciful mode of homogeneous revenge) . The
Brahman went down under the water ; and his pride
was thoroughly subdued. Then Matanga seeing that the
Brahmans were residing in the city of Mejjha,went thither through the air
,and taking his bowl pro
ceeded to seek alms in the street where he had alighted
but when the Brahmans saw him, lest they themselvesshould come to nought through his influence
,they per
suaded the king to send messengers to put him to death .
At the moment of their arrival he was eating the rice
from his bowl ; and as his mind was off its guard (and he
was left on that account, without the protection that
would otherwise have defended him from all evil) theywere able to dispatch him with their swords . He was
born in a Brahma-loka ; but the dewas, to avenge his
death,caused a shower of hot mud to fall, that destroyed
the whole country. In that birth Buddha was Matanga ;and the king of Udeni was Mandabba.
In this translation, many of the minor details are omitted ,
THE RAHATS AND RISHIS O F THE BUDDHISTS . 55
as the narrative is too long to be inserted at full length ;but I have preserved nearly all that relates to supernaturalendowment . One of three consequences must, of necessity,follow from the statements made in this extract : 1 . The
Atuwawa Commentaries are not to be received as an
authority ; or, 2 . This particular narrative is an in
terpolation ; or, 3 . Buddha did really say what is ascribed
to him in this Jataka . The first alternative will scarcelybe conceded
,from the important consequences that would
follow any attempt to invalidate the claim of the Com
mentaries to be regarded as of equal authority with the
Text . It would be of no avail to allow the second, as the
same statements are made in other parts of the sacred
books . And if we receive the third, then the power
attributed to the rishis is acknowledged, attested, andconfirmed by Buddha . But that men with such powersever lived in this world is against the entire testimony ofall credible history ; and in thus avowing his belief intheir existence the Tathagato proclaims that he is under
the control of like influences with other men . As in the
present instance, he is led into mistake by the errors ofhis age . That the narrator of the Jataka believed in thepower attributed to Matanga
,we have evidence in the
following stanza, uttered as his own thought in reference
to a previous stanza :
Having said this,Matanga
,
The rishi, tru ly powerful,Went through the skyWhils t the Brahmans were looking on.
‘
Appendix, Note B .
56 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
9 . THE CREDIBILITY OF THE HISTORICAL RECORDS
OF THE WEST .
It is a question often asked by the natives of Indi a,Why are our books not to be believed just as muchas yours are ? It is only book against book and we
maintain that our books contain the truth, and that yours
do not .” Our reply is , that when we see the ola leaf andthe printed page lie side by side, there may not be much
apparent difference in the credibility of their evidence ;but we must go back some two thousand years, and then
the difference is not between book and book, but betweenbook and memory
,or between book and tradition .
In the Scriptures of the Hebrews, the art of writing iscontinually referred to, even in the earliest books . In Job
we have reference to three different kinds of writing ; in a
book, on lead, and in the rock (Job xix . 23, In
Genesis v . 1, we read of “ the book of the generations
of Adam.
” In Exodus xvn . 14,Moses is commanded to
“ write this for a memorial in a book .
” The ten com
mandments were written upon tables of stone with the
finger of God ”(Exod . xxxi . Moses prays that if the
people were not forgiven, his name might be blotted out
of the book which God had written (Exodus xxxii .In the book of Joshua, who lived about a thousand years
before the time of Buddha, we read of Kirjath-sannah, or
the city of letters,
” and of Kirj ath-sepher,“ the city
of books (Josh . xv. 15 , In Psalm x1. 7, we have
the passage,
“ Then said I, Lo, I come : in the volume
58 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
literature will be seen,by referring to the circumstances
under which the New Testament was originally penned,and has since been preserved . 1 . There are quotations
from it,and references to it
,in various books , from the
present time up to the time of the apostles . These
quotations are so numerous, that“ the whole of the New
Testament might have been recovered therefrom,even if
the originals had perished .
”2 . There are numerous manu
scripts of ancient date now preserved in the libraries of
Europe,the oldest of which is in the Vatican at Rome,
and is supposed to have been written nearly 1500 years ago ;and this would
,no doubt
,be copied from the oldest and
best authenticated MS . within reach of the transcriber .
3 . There are ancient versions in several languages, the
oldest being the Syrian, which was translated either in the
first century of the Christian era, or immediately afterw ards . From these facts we can be certain that the NewTestament was written immediately after the death of our
Lord, to whom he “ the kingdom,the power
,and the
glory, for ever and ever ; and that they have come down
to us in their original form,withoutaddition
,or diminution
,
or corruption, beyond the usual mistakes of the most careful
copyist . The same mode of argument can be used in
relation to the age and uncorrupted preservation of other
works,though it may not be applicable to them to the
same extent as to the Scriptures . “ The antiquity of the
records of the Christian faith , says Isaac Taylor, “ is
substantiated by evidence, in a ten-fold proportion, more
various , copious, and conclusive, than that which can be
adduced in support of all other ancient works .
INCREDIBILITY or THE LEGENDS or INDIA . 59
10 . THE INCREDIBILITY O F THE LEGENDS OF
INDIA.
When we turn to Brahmanical and Buddhist literature,we find that Similar evidences of credibility are either
entirely wanting,or are presented to a very small extent .
Max Miiller tells u s, that in the 1017 hymns of the Rig-vedathere is not a single reference to any kind of writing, nor
in any work attributed to the Brahmana period ; and in
the Sutra period all the evidence we can get would leadus to suppose that even then, though the art of writing
began to be known, the whole literature of India was
preserved by oral tradition only.
” The pure Brahmans
never Speak of granthas,or books . They Speak of their
Veda, which means knowledge . They speak of their
Sruti, which means what they have heard with their ears.
They speak of Smriti, which means what their fathers
have declared unto them . We meet with Brahmanas, i .e.
the sayings of Brahmans ; with Sutras, i .e. the strings
of rules ; with Vedangas, i .e. the members of the Veda ;with Pravachanas
, i .e . preachings ; w ith Darshanas,i .e .
demonstrations ; but we never meet, with a book, or a
volume, or a page . The names and divisions of the
Pitakas are of a similar character ; but there are in themseveral undoubted references to writing.
“ There were
in Rajagaha seventeen children who were friends, Upalibeing the principal one ; his parents thought much of a
profession for him,by which he might obtain a livelihood
after their death . They thought of his being a scribe,
60 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
but remembered that writing would tire his fingers .
It is supposed by some orientalists that the earliest re
ference to writing in India is in relation to Buddha,of
whom it is said in the Lalita Vistara,that when the young
prince had grown he was led to the writing-school,lipsala ;
but this is a comparatively modern work,of little authority,
and in Ceylon known only by name .
The art of writing cannot have been known in Ceylon
at a period much earlier than in India,as it was evidently
introduced into the island after the language in present
use was formed . The words tinta,ink
,and paena
,a pen
,
shew that the people were taught to write on paper by the
Portuguese . When we examine the materials connectedwith their own mode of writing, the words we meet with
are adapted words, or words formed by combination ; as
pota,a book, is from potta, plural potu, the bark of a tree,
like the English word book, from a root that signifiesprimarily bark, the Latin liber, of the same meaning, andthe Greek bibles, the inner bark of the papyru s ; pus-kola,a blank leaf, is the strip of talipot leaf upon which they
write ; liyanawa, to write, meant originally to cut, to
engrave,to make an incision ; ul-katuwa, the stylus, is
literally a sharp thorn ; akura, a letter, is from ak ka, a
mark ; kundaliya, w the sign that a sentence is finished,
answering to our full stop, is a bracelet, or collar ; andkiyawanawa, to read, is literally, to cause to say.
That the alphabet of Ceylon was derived from a western
source,will be seen from a comparison of the following
Phoenician and Singhalese letters
Rev. D. J. Gogerly, Journ. Ceylon Branch Royal As. Soc. vol . 11. p . 124.
62 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
of my giving an Opinion as to the relation which the two
alphabets of Ceylon bear towards each other . The viewI have taken of the origin of the S inghalese alphabet isnot without interest, in reference to the supposition of
Sir Emerson Tennent, that Galle is the Tarshish of theScriptures, with which the Phoenicians traded . There are
other Indian alphabets in which a similar resemblance can
be traced, but not to the same extent . Mr . James Alw is,the editor and translator of the Sidath Sangarana, has
noticed the aflinity between the Tamil and Singhalese
alphabets ; and remarks that the vowel signs with whichthe consonants are inflected agree in a wonderful manner .
There may be some alliance, not in Shape but in origin,between the Hebrew points and the vowel-symbols of theAryan languages .
We therefore conclude, from the above facts, that theart of writing was unknown in India when it was in
common use on the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean ;and that the people of this island are indebted to some
nation there resident, most probablv the Phoenicians, for
a knowledge of the art, and for many of the characters of
the alphabet . I am thus particular in establishing what
might otherwise seem to have little reference to our main
subj ect,from the fact, that the natives of India give to
every thing connected with themselves an immeasurable
antiquity,and thereby foreclose any attempt that may be
made to shew them their real position .
In India there is scarcely any trace of that kind of
literature that has ever been the heritage of the western
nations,except in what are called the middle ages
,when
INCREDIBILITY OF THE LEGENDS OF INDIA . 63
gross darkness covered the people . We have no con
temporary history of anyAryan nation, except in fragments
that are small in themselves, and separated from each other
by long intervals . Though there are, it is supposed, ten
thousand different Sanskrit works now in existence, withthe exception of the Raj a Tarangini, there is hardly onefrom which the historian can extract a sure date or a realevent . No occurrence has had a greater effect upon theinterests of Brahmanism, both as to caste and creed, thanthe rise and spread of Buddhism ; but the notices of the
system in Sanskrit works are so few , that the most learned
of all Englishmen in this language,Professor Wilson,
judging from this stand-point, seriously questioned whetherBuddha ever existed at all.
There is the same want of all that is real and trustworthy, and the same absence of fact, in the writings
of the Buddhists . In that which takes the place of historyin their sacred books, they carry us back many myriads ofyears
,and give us long details about men who lived to the
age of years, and sages who had an attendant
retinue of disciples . The Mahawanso is not a
religious authority, and it presents a smaller portion of the
incredible than the Pitakas ; but even this work, upheld forits comparative truthfulness, tells us that Gétama Buddha
was near the banks of the Ganges,and in the Himalayan
forest, and in Ceylon on the same day ; that finding the
island filled with demons he spread his carpet of skin on
the ground,which became effulgent, and extended itself
on all sides, until the demons stood on the outermost shore
(we suppose, like the cocoa-nut groves of the present day,
64 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
but without their beauty) ; and that he caused the islandGiri to approach, to which he transferred them,
and then
put the island back again in the deep sea,with all the
demons on it ; thus rendering Lanka habitable for men ;and that then
,as if this was not enough for one day’s
wonders,when his work was so far done
,he quietly folded
up hi s carpet and preached to the dewas, when more than
a myriad myriad beings received the blessing of his
doctrines .” If it be said that this was done by Buddha,the all-powerful, and the acknowledged vanquisher ofdemons
,and is therefore out of the pale of ordinary occur
rence,we may watch, as one of every day sights of those
times, and within the limit of humanity, the priest Anando
come through the air, enter a pavili on by emerging from
the floor without touching it,and assist in the holding
of a convocation, at the close of which “ the self-balanced
earth quaked six times from the lowest abyss of the
ocean . Again, if it be said that this was in a far-away
country,about which we can know little
,we may return to
our own land, and we are told that in the 307th year of
Buddha, or thereabouts, by virtue of the piety of the then
king,many miraculous phenomena took place ; the riches
and precious metals buried in the earth came up therefrom,
and appeared on the surface ; the treasures buried in the
sea came to the land ; and the eight k inds of precious
pearls rose up from the ocean, and stood in a ridge on the
shore .This is the manner in which the easterns write history
But the effects of this constant effort at exaggeration have
been most disastrous to the interests of India . The every
66 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
the library at Erfurth, and reveal the imposition that had
been palmed upon the world . The past was all before
them ; they could people it as they willed, and make it
speak any language,or tell of any event, that best suited
their purpose .
The Buddhists were not so forward as the Brahmans to
embrace the opportunity thus afforded , if we may rely
upon what we learn from themselves ; but in w ild invention they have outstripped all competitors, of whateverage, race, or sect . They have writings that they regard
as sacred,to which they pay the same reverence that the
Brahman gives to the Veda . These writings are called, in
Pali, Pitakattaya ; or in S inghalese, P itakatraya, and to
the whole there are Commentaries,called in Pali
,Atta
katha, or in Singhalese, Atuwa. The principal sections
into which they are di vided are three —Winaya, Suttan,and Abhidhamma. The Text and Commentaries contain
,
according to a statement in the Saddharmalankaré,letters " There are three events
,connected
with the transmission of these works,that we must notice .
1 . NVe are told that the Pali Text and the Commentaries
were first brought to the island as the unwritten Dharmma,in the mind or memory of Mabindo, son of the then reign
ing monarch of India, 307, who came through the
air,with six other persons, “ instantaneou sly,
” and alighted
at Mihintalla, near Anuradhapura ; and that not long after
We learn from a statement in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Societyfor May
,1847, communicated by Dr. J . Muir, that in the fourVedas there areslokas
,and in the Commentaries I t is said that in the
entire English B ible there are letters.
INCREDIBILITY or THE LEGENDS or INDIA. 67
his arrival, in the space of a few minutes he converted . the
king and of his attendants,whom he met when out
hunting ; but no wonder, if his voice could be heard all
over Lanka .
” He is said to have translated the Commen
taries into Singhalese . But for Mahindo to have retained
in his memory the whole of the Text and the Commen
taries,would have been almost as great a miracle as the
mode by which he is said to have reached Ceylon . If
Mahindo brought any part of the Pitakas, he could not
have brought them in the extended form in which we have
them now ; and, therefore, as the Buddhists of the islandcannot tell what portion is ancient
,and what is new, what
part was brought by the priest,and what has been added
by others, they can have no confidence that the word they
now receive as primitive truth is not the invention of a
later age . 2 . We are told, again, that the whole of the
matter now composing the sacred books was orally trans
mitted, from generation to generation of the priesthood,until the year 90
, without being committed to writing.
“ The profoundly wise priests had theretofore orally per
petuated the Pali P itakattaya and the Attakatha. At thi s
period these priests, foreseeing the perdition of the people
(from the perversions of the true doctrine) , assembled ;and in order that the religion might endure for ages
,re
corded the same in books Then, even allowing that the
whole of the Pitakas were brought to the island at the
time of the establishment of Buddhism in it, what surety
is there that they were remembered exactly for so many
years, and that they were recorded correctly at last ?
Mahawanso, cap . xxxiii.
68 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
There were heresies abroad at the time, and we have noproof that those who are called heretics were not theorthodox Buddhists
,and the writers of the Pitakas heretics .
3 . The Commentaries, as we have them now ,cannot be
the same as those that are said to have been brought over
by Mahindo. We learn from the Mahawanso that in the
year 432 A .D . ,nearly a thousand years after the death of
Buddha, a Hindu priest, Beweto, was the means of the
conversion of a Brahman,called Buddhaghéso,
“ the voice
of Buddha,
” from his eloquence,whom he commanded, in
the following terms, to repair to Ceylon, and there totranslate the Commentaries into Pali . “ The text alone
has been preserved in this land : the Attakatha are notextant there ; nor is there any version to be found of thewada (schisms) complete . The Singhalese Attakatha are
genuine . They were composed (made) in the Singhaleselangu age by the inspired and profoundly wise Mabindo,who had previously consulted the discourses of Buddha
,
authenticated at the three convocations, and the disserta
tions and arguments of Sariputto and others, and they are
extant among the Singhalese . Repairing thither, andstudying the same, translate (them) according to the rules
of the grammar of the Magadhas . It will be an act con
ducive to the welfare of the whole world . On his arrival in Ceylon, Buddhaghéso first made an abridgement
of the sacred books, which he called Wisuddhimargga.
“ Having assembled the priesthood, who had a thorough
knowledge of Buddha, at the bo-tree, be commenced to
read out (the work he had composed) . The dewas, in
order that they might make his gifts of wisdom celebrated
70 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
necessity, if the preceding statements are to be believed ;for if Mahindo was a rahat (and therefore incapable of
falling into error on any subject connected with religion) ,the Commentaries he translated must have been as free
from error as the original ; if the priests who afterwards
committed them to writing were rabats, as the Singhalese
affirm,they could not err and if Buddhaghéso wrote out
the whole of the Wisuddhimargga three times frommemory
,without the slightest variation
,
“ even in the
letter of a word,we may conclude that his Commentary
was equally free from mistake . When the late Mr . GeorgeTurnour had an interview
,in Kandy, with the two high
priests of the Malwatta and Asgiri establishments, and
their fraternities,to discuss the question of an “ apparently
fatal discrepancy,between the Text and the Commentary,
they replied that the Pittakattha only embodied the
essential portions of the discourses,revelations, and pro
phecies of Buddha ; and that his disciples, some centuries
after his nibbanan,were endowed with inspiration
,and
that their supplements to the Pitakatthawere as sacred in
their estimation as the text itself.” The Commentaries,
then,it is to be remembered
,are of equal authority with
the Text,on the testimony of the author of the Maha
wanso, and of the high priests of both the establishments
in Kandy
1 1 . WILSON,MAX MULLER, AND TURNOUR ON
BUDDHISM .
We shall be better prepared to enter upon some of the
questions we have yet to consider, if we notice before pro
WILSON,MAx MuLLER, AND TURNOUR O N BUDDHISM . 71
ceeding further, the Opinions formed on Buddhism by the
learned men of Europe who have studied this subj ect .
The name of Professor Wilson is well-known, and greatly
revered,in Ceylon
,from the vast er
’
udition he has dis
played in his Sanskrit Dictionary and Grammar . Thefollowing extracts are taken from an Essay, read as aLecture
,On Buddha and Buddhism,
” before the RoyalAsiatic Society
,April 8
,1854, and published in the
Society’s Journal, vol. xvi . art . 13 . The Professorsupposes
that the Pali books of Ceylon are not so ancient as the
Sanskrit Buddhistical writings of India Proper . Their
subsequent date may be inferred from internal evidence ;for
, although they are in all respects the very same as the
Buddhist works of Indi a—laying down the same laws andprecepts, and narrating the same marvellous legends—theybear the characteristics of a later and less intellectual cultivation, in their greater diffuseness, and the extravagant
and puerile additions they frequently make to the legen
dary matter.” After reference to the accounts that are
current among various nations as to the principal events
connected with the life and death of Buddha,he thus
proceeds : These accounts of Sakya’
s birth and proceed
ings, laying aside the miraculous portions, have nothing
very impossible, and it does not seem improbable that an
individual of a speculative turn of mind,and not a Brah
man by birth,should have set up a school of his own in
opposition to the Brahmanical monopoly of religious instruction, about six centuries before Christ ; at the same
time there are various considerations whi ch throw sus
picion upon the narrative, and render it very problematical
72 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
whether any such person as Sakya Sinha, or Sakya Muni,or Sramana Gautama
,ever actually existed . In the first
place, the Buddhists widely disagree with regard to the
date of his existence. In a paper I published many years
ago in the Calcutta Quarterly Magazine, I gave a list O fthirteen different dates
,collected by a Tibetan author
,and
a dozen others might be easily added,the whole varying
from 2420 to 453 B .C . They may, however, be di stin
gui shed under two heads, that of the northern Buddhists,1030 B .C . for the birth of Buddha
,and that of the southern
Buddhists,for his death B .C. 543 . It is difficult
,however
,
to understand why there should be such a difference as
five centuries,if Sakya had lived at either the one or
the other date .
The name O f his tribe, the Sakya, and their existence
as a distinct people and principality,find no warrant from
any of the Hindu writers,poetical, tradi tional, or mytho
logical ; and the legends that are given to explain theirorigin and appellation are
,beyond measure, absurd.
“ The name of Sakya’
s father, Suddhodana,‘he whose
food is pure —suggests an allegorical signification, and inthat of his mother
,Maya, or Mayadevi,
‘ illusion,di vine
delusion,
’—w e have a manifest allegorical fiction ; his
secular appellation as a prince, Siddhartha, he by whom
the end is accomplished,’—and his religious name, Bud
dha,
‘he by whom all is known ,’ are very much in the
style of the Pilgrim’s Progress, and the city of his birth ,Kapila Vastu
,which has no place in the geography of the
Hindus, is of the same description. It is explained, the
tawny site,
’ but it may also be rendered, ‘the substance of
74 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS
Sanskrit lore part of the literature of the world. In his
able work On An cient Sanskrit Literature,
” he makes
frequent reference to Buddha, and supposes that the viru
lence with which he was assailed, arose from his opposition
to the exclusive privileges and abuses of the Brahmans,rather than from his religious speculations . The bitter
ness of the Brahmans,and the mode in which they assailed
their opponents,may be learned from the following extract
from Kumarila’
s Tantra-varttika These Sakyas (Budd~
hists) , Vaiseshikas, and other heretics, who have been
frightened out of their wits by the faithful Mimansakas,prattle away with our own words as if trying to lay hold
of a shadow. They say that their sacred books are eternal ;but they are of empty minds, and only out of hatred they
wish to deny that the Veda is the most ancient book . And
these would-be logicians declare even that some of their
precepts (which they have stolen from us) , like that of
universal benevolence, are not derived from the Veda,
because most of Buddha’s other sayings are altogether
opposed to the Veda . Wishing, therefore, to keep true onthis point also, and seeing that no merely human precept
could have any authority on moral and supernatural sub
jects, they try to veil their d ifliculty by aping our own
arguments for the eternal existence of the Veda. They
know that the Mimansakas have proved that no sayings of
men can have any authority on supernatural subjects ;they know also that the authority of the Veda cannot be
controverted,because they can bring forward nothing
against the proofs adduced for its divine origin,by which
all supposition of a human source has been removed .
WILSON, MAx MuLLER, AND TURNOUR O N BUDDHISM . 75
Therefore,their hearts being gnawed by their own words
,
which are like the smattering of children,and having
themselves nothing to answer, because the deception of
their illogical arguments has been destroyed, they begin
to speak like a foolish suitor who came to ask for a bride,
saying,My family is as good as your family.
’ In the
same manner they now maintain the eternal existence of
their books,aping the speeches of others . And if they
are challenged, and told that this is our argument, they
brawl,and say that we
,the Mimansakas
,have heard and
stolen it from them. For a man who has lost all Shame,
who can talk away without any sense, and tries to cheat
his opponent,will never get tired, and w ill never be put
down "” Kumarila afterwards tells the Buddhists, that
they who ascribe to everything a merely temporary
existence,have no business to talk of an eternal revela
tion but,upon their own principles
,they would refute
this argument,by saying, that what seems to be temporary
is the repetition of an eternal series . With the otherargument they would have greater difficulty ; that the
words of Gotama, who was born like other mortals, andbreathed like them, and who afterwards died and w as
burnt,could not be allowed to supersede the revelation of
the gods, as presented in the unerring Veda .
We are told by Max Miiller, from whom the preceding
extract has been taken,that the Buddhists have no history
previous to the time of Asoka,except “ what was clearly
supplied from their own heads and not from authentic
documents .” Until the adoption of Buddhism as the state
religion by that king, there Was no obj ect in connecting
76 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
the lives of Buddha and his disciples with the chronology
of the Solar or Lunar dynasties of Indi a . We possessmore than one system of Buddhist chronology, but to try
to find out which is the most plausible seems useless, and
it can onlymake confusion worse confounded if we attempt
a combination of the three .” Until new evidence can bebrought forward to substantiate the authenticity of the
early history of Buddhi sm as told by the Ceylonese priests,it would be rash to use the dates of the southern Buddhists
as a corrective standard for those of the northern Budd
hists or of the Brahmans,as before the year 161 B 0 . their
chronology is “ tradi tional and full of absurdities . Vij aya,
the founder of the first dynasty, means conquest,
” and
such a person most likely never existed. To give renown
to the temples of Ceylon,the statement was invented that
they had been visited by Buddha . These are the conclu
sions of another orientalist ; who regards the legends ofBuddha as absurd
,
” and its chronology as confusion.
”
From the attention paid to Pali literature by the lateMr . Turnour,—the most prominent name among the fewcivilians of the island who have interested themselves inthe study of its languages
,history
,or religion—it is be
lieved by many of the natives that he was in reality a
Buddhist ; with what reason , we may learn from the following extracts . “ According to the Buddhistical creed
all remote,historical data
,whether sacred or profane,
anterior to GOtama’
S advent, are based upon iris revelation .
They are involved in absurdity as unbounded,as the
mystification in which Hindu literature is enveloped.
It would be inconsistent with the scheme of such a creed,
78 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
few examples of men who study,for years and years, a
religion they regard as false,for the sake of the general
information they thereby gain,take it for granted, when
they see a European poring over one O f their sacred bookswith intense interest
,that it must necessarily be becaus e
he admires its contents,and believes its doctrines . But
let them know ,that this is a conclusion that has no foun
dation in truth .
12 . DIFFERENCES IN THE CHRONOLOGY O F THE
BUDDHISTS .
It will have been noticed that there is one subj ect referred to alike by all the writers we have just named—theextraordinary differences in the chronology of Buddha’s
appearance, as adopted by the various nations that have
embraced his faith. This difference amounts to nearly two
thousand years . The Chinese have the following dates for
this event : B .C. 640, 767, 949, 950, 1045, and 1130. From
the Tibetan books fourteen different dates have been col
lected , by the learned Hungarian, Csoma de Korosi : B .C .
546, 576, 653, 752 , 837, 880, 882 , 884, 1060, 1310, 2139,
2 135, 2144, and 2422 . The Japanese date is about B .C.
1000 . Fa Hian, a Chinese traveller who visited Ceylon
in AD 410, says that ten days before“ the middle of the
third moon” the king of this island was accustomed to
send a preacher to proclaim the austerities and mortifica
tions of Buddha, at the conclusion of which he declared“since his Ni houan 1497 years have elapsed ;
” which
would make the death of Buddha to be in the year B .C .
DIFFERENCES IN THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE BUDDHISTS . 79
Hiun Thsang, another Chinese pilgrim,who wrote
AD 640,after his return from India, says that the accounts
differ about Buddha’s death, it being fixed at 900, 1000,
1200, 1300, and 1500 years before his time . The Maha
wanso fixes the same date for the death of Buddha and the
landing of Wij aya in Ceylon ; but this date, B .C . 543, is
never found in the sacred chronology of Buddhism, before
it was borrowed from the profane chronology of Ceylon ."
It was the opinion of Mr . Turnour that sectarian zeal, or
the impostures of superstition,
” had led to the assignment of the same date for both these cardinal events .
ProfessorWils on founded one of his reasons for questioning the existence of Buddha upon the fact of these numer
ous discrepancies ; and the Buddhist will do well to ask
himself,If the being I worship
,and in whom I trust,
once lived,how has it come to pass that the differences of
opinion about the date of his death are so many, andextending to so vast a period
Laidlay’s Pilgrimage of Fa Hian.
7 Max Muller, Ancient Sanskri t Literature.
80 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
CHAPTER II.
THE COSMICAL SYSTEM OF THE BUDDHISTS .
IN the preceding chapter we have prepared our way,
gradually,for a more direct and immediate notice and
refutation of the various statements put forth by Buddhist
writers that are not “ historically true in which I in
clude everything that is contrary to facts known , proved,and universally acknowledged, in European literature orscience . I confine myself, almost exclusively, to Paliauthorities ; and in the few instances in which I have
deviated from this course, I have given notice that my
information is taken from some more modern work.
PART FIRST .—THE BUDDHIST UNIVERSE .
The Buddhists are taught that the universe is composed
of limitless systems or worlds, called Chakka-wala, or Sak
walas . They are scattered throughout space, in sections
of three and three,
"—and incomprehensible as is theirnumber, they can all be seen by Buddha ; who can know
whatever takes place in any one of them,
-
rif he turns his
Appendix, Note C .
1: Note D . The Stira Sangaha, fromwhich this information i s gained, is a
compilation from the Text and Commentaries , by the priest Suddattha. The
statement here made is taken by him from the Commentary on the BuddhaWauso
,which is not in the Mission Library.
82 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
lOkaS, in which there are no sensuous pleasures, and four
more in which there is no bodily form. The r esidence ‘O f
the asurs is under Maha Méru . There are eight places of
suflering situated in the interior of the earth . At the
circumference, or outer circle, of the system,there is a
ridge of stone, called the Sakwala rock, milesin diameter, and miles in circumferencefi‘
Between Maha Meru and the Sakwala ridge there are
seven circles of rocks,with seven seas between themJT
They are circular because of the shape of Maha Méru .
The first,or innermost
,Yugandhara, is miles
broad ; its inner circumference is miles, and its
outer miles . From Maha Meru to Yugandharais miles . Near Maha Méru the depth of the seais miles
,from which its depth gradually decreases,
until near Yugandhara it is miles . The second,Isadhara, is miles high
,and broad ; its
inner circumference is miles, and its outer
The width of the sea between Yugandhara
and Isadhara is miles . Near Yugandhara thedepth of the sea is miles, and near Isadhara
The third,Karaw ika, is miles hi gh,
and broad ; its inner circumference is
miles,and its outer The width of the sea
between Isadhara and Karaw ika is miles . NearIsadhara the depth of the sea is miles, and near
Karaw ika The fourth , Sudassana, is
miles high,and broad . Its inner circumference
is miles, and its outer The w idth
Appendix, Note G . 1: Note H .
THE BUDDHIST UNIVERSE . 83
of the sea between Karaw ika and Sudassana is
miles . Near Karaw ika the depth of the sea ismiles, and near Sudassana The fifth
, Nemindara,
is miles high, and broad . Its inner cir é
cumference is miles, and its outer,The width of the sea between Sudassana and Némindhara
is miles . Its depth near Sudassana is miles,and near Némindhara The Sixth, Winataka, is
miles high and broad. Its inner circum
ference is miles,and its outer
The width of the sea between Némindhara andWinatakais miles . Its depth near Némindhara is
miles,and near Winataka The seventh, Aswa
kanna,is miles high, and broad . Its inner
circumference is mi les, and its outer,The w idth O f the sea between Winataka and Aswakanna
is miles . Its depth nearWinataka is miles,and near Aswakanna From Maha Meru to theSakwala rock the di stance is miles ; and the rockitself is miles high, half below the water andhalf above?“ Buddhaghéso names Yugandhara first ; but
Buddha himself mentions them in the following order ;Sudassana, Karaw ika, Isadhara, Yugandhara, Némindhara,Winataka, and Aswakanna. But the discrepancy is to be
reconciled thus . On a certain occasion Matali,the chariot
eer of Sekra, showed king Nimi the infernal regions . AS
their return was delayed, Sekra sent the swift Jawana to
There Is a discrepancy between these numbers and those given in otherplaces ; in some instances arising from errors of transcription in copying thenative olas .
84 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
enquire what was the reason . The chariot was at once
turned towards the heaven whence they had come, Tawutisa.
When they rose above the water,they were near Sudassana,
and the king,looking before and behind, enquired what
rocks they were that he saw ; and the charioteer, lookingfirst before him
,said
, Sudassana, Karaw ika, Isadhara, and
Yugandhara ; and then looking behind him, said, Némindhara, Winataka, and Aswakanna. Buddha, referring to
this occurrence,mentions them in the same order, whilst
the author of the Wisuddhi Margga takes them in their
local order, beginning with the innermost first. But there
is no d isagreement between the one statement and the
other ; like the waters of the Yamuna and Ganga theybecome united . When the author of the Atuwawa on the
Nimi Jataka defines what Sudassana is, he says that theoutermost circle of rock is Sudassana ; but he wrote thisfrom carelessness, or want of thought."
The seas between the circles of rock are called Sidanta,because their waters are so light, or unbuoyant, that thefeather of a peafowl would not float in them .1 There are
also seas that have their names from the colour of the rays
that fall on them from Maha Méru , or from the gems that
they contain . The rays are like the respective sides of the
mountain ; and the silver rays from the east, mingling
with the sapphire rays from the south,cause the seas and
skies in those directions to be of the same colour. The
rays pass across the circular rocks and seas,until they
strike against the Sakwala ridge d" The waters of the seas
Jinalanktua. 1" Appendix, Note I . 1 Note J .
86 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O E THE BUDDHISTS .
would form one great ocean ; then, when the great windstrikes against Meru and the Himala-wana
,and the
Sakwala is shaken,the waters would be shaken too, and
all running to One side, would overflow the continents and
islands, and the Sakwala would be destroyed . When theSakwala is Shaken, the waters within it are Shaken too,and thi s causes the sea to ebb and flow . In the MahaParinibbana Suttanta, Buddha enumerates to Anando
eight causes of earthquakes . The first he mentions is onthis wise : The earth rests on the Jala-polowa, or World
ofWater, and the water rests on theWa-polowa,or World
of Wind. The wind rests on the Akasa,air
,or space .
Anando " whenever the great wind blows, it causes thewater to Shake, and when the water shakes, the earth
shakes .” The Aluwawa says : “ When the wind blowsthat shakes the Sakwala, it makes an opening in theWorld of Wind, by which the water descends, and theearth descends too ; but when the wind returns to its ownplace, the water rises, and the earth rises with it. Thus,when the water shakes
,the earth shakes too
, and this
shaking continues to our own time, but because the earth
is so large, its rising and descending are not perceived .
The Tika says that the Gal Polowa,or World of Stone
,
and the Sakwala ridge are j oined together like (the
timbers of ) a ship, and are one ; only, to make a dis
tinction,that which is under is called Gal Polowa
, and
that which is round, Sakwala Gala . The Gal Polowa,which prevents theWorld of Water from overflowing theWorld of Earth
,is like the bottom of an iron vessel
,
Appendix, Note M .
THE BUDDHIST UNIVERSE . 87
the Sakwala ridge is like the rim of the .vessel, the con
tinents are like the rice (put in to be eaten) , and the oceans
are like the sauce poured around the rice . "
Each Sakwala has a sun and moon . The sun is 500
miles in height,length
,and breadth, and its circumference .
is miles . The moon is 490 miles in height, length ,and breadth
,and its circumference miles . Their
orbits are horizontal with Maha Meru, at an elevation of miles above the surface of the earth .
The orbit of the moon is lower than that of the sun byten miles . It Is one thousand miles from the lowest partof the moon to the highest part of the sun . The inside of
the sun is . gold, and the outside is covered over with
crystal . Both within and without it is hot . The inside . of
the moon is a gem, and the outside is covered with , Silver.
Both Within and without it is coldxl' On the day of thedark moon, the moon is immediately under the sun . The
sun and moon travel on together, but as the moon does not
move so rapidly as the sun, the distance between them
increases continually, until, on the day of the full moon,
it is miles from the sun : In the space of one
month it moves towards the north , and then towards the
south, as the sun does in one year . The planets travel on
the two sides of the moon . The moon moves towards
them, as a cow towards her calf. It never leaves the
twenty-seven lunar mansions . When the sun travelscrosswise, from south to north , or from north to south,it moves more Slowly than when its course is straight . Onthe day after the dark moon, the sun has passed away
Jinalankara. 1" Appendix, Note N . 1 Note 0 .
88 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
from the moon a million miles,on account of its greater
swiftness . The moon-
then appears like a streak,or line .
On the second day the distance has increased a millionmiles more . And thus it continues
,day by day
,until, on
the day of the full moon,when the sun is at the greatest
distance from the mOon,and the sun’s shadow entirely
removed from the moon,the whole of the moon’s surface
appears . The same process then goes on as before ; the
distance between the sun and moon being altered by a
million of miles each day ; but it now diminishes, instead
of being increased . On the day of the dark moon,the
sun being the higher of the two,overshadows the moon,
like the covering of a small vessel by a larger, or the overpowering of the light of a lamp by the sun’s rays at
mid-day .
"
There are three paths, and to each of the paths there are
four signs (of the Zodiac) , in which the sun and moon
constantly travel ; they are the Goat, the Bull, and theElephant.
‘
l‘ When they are in the first there is no rain ;
when in the second,there is a moderate quantity, neither
too much rain nor too much heat ; and when in the third
the rain is excessive,and pours down as if the heavens
were opened . The sun and moon,during six months of
the year, move from Maha Méru towards the Sakwala
rock,and during the other six months from the Sakwala
rock towards Maha Méru . When the path of the sun isnot cross-wise but straight
,it gives light to three of the
continents at once . In each direction its rays remove the
darkness for the space of miles . When the sun
Sm Sangaha . 1 Appendix, Note P.
90 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
times moves them up and down in his mouth, like an
animal chewing its end . But he is not able to prevent
themfrom moving onward . Were he to attempt to keepthem In his mouth
,saying
,
“ I will kill these (bawling)dewas,
” they would escape through the crown of his
headfl‘
The waters of the sea in which the Walabhamukha
is formed,rise up towards the sky, appearing in all
directions like a lake with its embankments brokendown . When the waters thus rise, one side appears like
a precipice,and the other like a valley ; and they rush
impetuously towards the Aswakanna and Sakwala rock .
They rise in waves the height of ten or a hundred miles,
causing a hollow like the infernal regions,and making a
noise sufficient to break the drum of the ear . There is a
great whirlpool in one part of the sea . It is thus caused
the gates of the Aw ichi hell (underneath Jambud ipa) , are
continually opening and shutting,by which a great flame
arises, so that the water boils for many miles below thesurface, which is thereby greatly agitated. It is this
terrible place that is calledWalabhamukha.1'
The waters become deeper as they recede from the
continents,on both sides
,gradually, according to the
following scale ; an inch , two inches, a span, a cubit, a
yashtiya, an isba, a half gawata, a gaw uta,a half i ana, a
i ana, and so on, until, near Maha Meru they are
miles deep, and near the Sakwala rock miles .
From the bottom upwards, for miles, they are
SAra Sangaha . SanyuttaWaunana.
1 Sérra Sangaha. Suppara I staka. Théra GathaWaunana.
THE BUDDHIST UNIVERSE . 91
agitated by large fishes ; and from the surface downward ,
for miles,they are agitated by the wind . In the
miles that intervene between the two agitations,there is a perfect calm. There are waves 600 miles high ,called Mahinda others 400 miles high, called
The carcases of elephants,horses, and other animals, are
cast on shore, as if thrown by the hand, and no \inipuritywhatever attaches to the waters . In them there are fishes
called Timinda,
miles in size ; Timingala,miles ; and Timira Pingala, miles . There are four
others, Ananda, Timinda, Aj aroha, and Maha Timi, each
miles in Size . When the Timira Pingala shakeshis right or left ear, the waters are agitated for the space
of 5000 miles around,and it is the same when he Shakes
hi s head or his tail . When he moves his head and tailtogether
, the waters are agitated for the space of 8000
miles . It requires water more than a thousand miles deepto cover his back
In the continent of Jambudipa, there are milesthat have been swallowed up by the ocean, because the
merit of those who were to derive benefit from the landwas exhausted ; miles are covered by the Himalawana ; and miles are inhabited by men . i In the
part in which men live there are fifty-six ratnakaras (placeswhere gold
,and the other ten kinds of treasure, are found)
seaports, from which customs are levied ; and
cities .
The Himala-wana is so called, because it is covered with
Appendix, Note S . 1 Sara Sangaha. Maha NidanaSuttaWaunana,
in the D ighaNikaya. Appendix, Note T . 1 Note U .
92 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
hims , or snow or becaus e in the hot season the snowmelts .
There are 500 rivers in it,each of which is 500 miles in
length, breadth, and depth . There are seven large lakes :
Anotatta, Kannamunda,Rathakéra
,Chhaddhanta, Kunala,
Mandékini, and Sihappapata, each of which is 1500 miles
in extent . Around Anotatta are five mountains : Sudas
sana, Chitta, Kala, Gandhamadana, and Kailasa . Sudas
sana is golden,and 2000 miles high ; its rocks hang over,
like the bill of a crow ; Chitta is throughout of gold ; Kala
is of antimony ; Gandhamadana is of the colour of mung
seed, and there grow upon it ten different kinds of fragrant
creepers or trees : kalu-wael, with the fragrance in the
root ; sandun, in the wood ; hora, in the outer integument ;lawanga (cinnamon in the bark ; dhulu , in the layers ;sarja, in the milk ; tamala, in the leaf ; kungkuman, in the
flower ; jatiphala, in the fruit ; and ghanda-gbanda,in
every part ; with various kinds ofmedicinal plants . There
are also caves : golden, gem
-like,and silver . At the eu
trance of the gem-like cave,there is a tree called Munj i
'
I
saka, ten miles high and ten broad, on which grow allkinds of plants
,whether aquatic or terrene ; and a wind
arises that removes all impurities,nowmaking smooth and
even the comminuted gems of which the surrounding sand
is composed,and now sprinkling water from the Anotatta
lake,that has the fragrance of all sweet-scented trees .
Seats are at all times prepared for the reception of the
PaSé-Buddhas, when any appear . When one PaSé-Buddha
takes his seat, all the others assemble there at the same
time ; and if any one has recently attained this privi
lege,he tells how he became possessed of it. All the
94 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISl S .
Between the eastern and northern mouths of Chhaddantha
there is a nuga,or bani an tree
,the trunk of whi ch is fifty
miles round and seventymiles high ; it has branches on its
four sides sixty miles long ; from the root to the highest
part is 130 miles and from the tip of one branch to that
of the opposite one is 120 mi les . It has 8000 roots, shin
ing like the mountain Munda Mani .’t On the eastern Sideof the same lake there is a cave 120 miles in size, to whi chthe chief of the elephants
,with 8000 others resort in the
rainy season,whilst in the hot season they lie among the
roots of the banian tree . Near the lakes,the sugar cane
grows as high as an areca tree . There are plantains aslarge as an elephant’s trunk ,
and lotus flowers the size of
the head of a ploughxrThere are lions in the Himala-wana of four kinds : trina,kala, pandu, and kesara . The trina is dove-coloured, and inshape like a cow . It feeds on grass . The kala is like a
black cow, and feeds on grass . The pandu is of a yellow
colour (like a priest’s robe
, ) and in Shape is like a cow ; it
feeds on flesh . The kesara has its mouth,the tips of its
nails, and the extremities of its feet, red, like sealing-wax ;three lines run from the head along the back
,as if drawn
by the pencil of a painter ; his mane is of thick hair, likea rough mantle worth a laksha of money ; and in other
parts of his body his colour is like fine flour or the powder
of ehanques. He is called murga-rz’ija, or the king of
beasts . Issuing from a golden, silver, or gem-like cave,he
goes forth,either because he is tired of darkness and wishes
for light, or for purposes of nature, or in search of food, or
sara Sangaha, Sfirattha Dipani . 1 S in
'a Sangaha .
THE BUDDHIST UNIVERSE . 95
prompted by passion . Wh en going in Search of food, he
stands on a rock, or some other elevation, places his hind
legs evenly, spreads his front legs before him, draws forward
the hind part of his body, bends his back, breathes with a
noise like the thunder, and Shakes the dust from his body.
In the same place he runs to and fro, like a young calf, atthis time appearing like a fire-brand whirled round in the
night . In compassion towards other beasts, he looks round
and roars ; at which time the elephants, bulls, and buffaloes,which are on mountains, or near ponds and lakes, fall down
the precipice into the water . But can there be compassion
in one that feeds on another’s flesh Yes . Thus he thinks
Of what use will it be to kill many I must not destroy
the smaller beasts ; and so he has compassion . At his first
roar he can be heard thirty miles, in every direction . Nobiped or quadruped that hears this roar can remain in the
same place . When he sports himself, he can leap, to theright or left
,an isba, and when he leaps upward, four or
eight isbas . If he leaps on even ground, he can leap
twelve or twenty isbas ; if from a rock or elevated place,sixty or eighty isbas . If his course is intercepted by a
tree or rock,he passes an isba round
,in order to avoid it.
When he roars the third time, he moves thirty miles, as
rapidly as the sound of the roar, and at that distance he
overtakes the echo of his own voicefi"
In the same forest there is a Jambu, or Damba tree,from which Jambudipa, or Dambadiwa, derives its names .
From the root to the highest part is 1000 miles ; the spacecovered by the outspreading branches is 3000 miles in cir
Sera Sangaha,Appendix, NoteV. Anguttara NikayaWannanfi.
96 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
cumference ; the trunk is 150 miles round, and 500 milesfrom the root to the place where the branches begin toextend ; the four great branches are each 500 miles long,and from between these flow four great rivers . Where
the fruit of the tree falls, small plants of gold arise, whichare washed into the river, and carried onward to the
ocean .
This summary of what we may call the geography andastronomy of the Buddhists, is taken from works that are
considered as authoritative by the followers of the Tathagate ;but nearly every one of the propositions therein contained
is proved to be false, unfounded, and unreal, by the demon
strations of science . On reading them, the European, or
the native of India who is acquainted with Europeanliterature
,is ready to say, “ What nonsense " these things
are too absurd to require to be refuted but, though they
may appear in this light to those who have received
superior instruction, it may be well to remember, that
errors which have been regarded as revealed truth during
thousands of years,are not to be set aside by an utterance
of surprise or an expression of contempt . I Shall, therefore,examine one by one, the statements attributed to the
Bhagaw a ; who is called sarwagnya, the all-know ing ;buddha
,he who knows all that can be known, and lOkawid i
’
I,
he who knows all worlds .
Sti rs Sangaha. NoteW . Wisuddhi Magga. Serattha Dipani .
98 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
hatu, or superior series . An ando " if the Tathégato is
wishful, he can cause his voice to be heard in all theseworlds, or even a greater number. And it is in this way .
By the glory proceeding from the Tathagato, all theseworlds are enlightened
,and when the enqu iry is made,
whence this brightness proceeds , he speaks with his voice,
(so that in all these worlds it can beAt another time
,when Buddha resided in the Jétawana
wihara,near the city of Sawatthi, a certain dewata, called
ROhatissa, came to him by night, illuminating the wholeplace by his presence
,and respectfully asked him,
“ IS it
possible to know, see, or arrive at, the limi t (of the worlds) ,or a place whe re there is neither birth
, jayati ; existence,
jiyati ; death,miyati ; or re-production, chawati Buddha
replied, “ I do not say there is such a limit ; but herepeated a stanza to this effect
By j ourneying (one) cannot arrive atThe limi t of the léka(But) withou t arriving at the limi tThere is (yet) freedom from sorrow (dukkha) .
The dewata afterwards said ;“ In a former birth I was
a rishi, of the same name as now . I had the power of
irdhi, and could go through the air . How ? AS the
arrow of the skilful archer cuts through the shadow of a
tall tree,with the same ease and rapidity I could step from
the eastern to the western boundary of the Sakwala . Being
possessed of this rapidity of motion, and length of step, a
desire arose in my mind to travel to the end of the world .
In this way, and for this purpose, I travelled for the
Anguttara Nikaya . Appendix, Note X.
THE CHAKKA-WALA, O R SAKWALAS . 99
period of one hundred years, never stopping unless for
eating,drinking
,sleeping, or the purposes of nature ; but
in that space of time I had not arrived at the end of the
world ; and I thenNo one but the Tathagato can know the extent of theinfinite worlds . The Sakwalas are not the stars, as is
sometimes supposed ; they are tub-like masses, of the same
shape as our own Sakwala, floating as Ships in the great
universe of waters,which is everywhere extended, and is
itself supported by the air, everywhere extended also . Butthough the telescope of the astronomer has swept through
every part of the heavens,north
,south
,east
,west, above,
and below, and revealed the existence of thousands of
worlds never seen by the naked eye,he has not discovered
anything like a Sakwala . It is not strictly correct that
Buddha teaches that the Sakwala is itself a plane . The
four continents and the great seas are on a level ; but from
Aswakanna to Maha Méru there is a series of rises, cul
minating in the heaven of Sekra. Yet no fact in science
is more certain than that the earth is of a Shape entirelv
different to that which is given it by Buddha . There is
scarcely any part of it in which Europeans are not found,at any given moment, either as sailors, travellers, or colo ~
nists ; and as no limit to it has been discovered by them,
it is proved thereby that its shape is like that of an
orange ; not merely round like a circle, but globu lar like a
ball or sphere . It is,therefore
,of the same Shape as the
other worlds that travel through the sky, and can have no
limit like a sakwala gala, or wall . To a line there are
4“ Anguttara Nihaya, Note Y.
100 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
limits ; to a circle there is no limit ; and if the wholesurface of a sphere be traced to find a limit
,the effort will
be in vain . This limitlessness is not from its being infinitely extended, but from its globularity. The various
beings on the surface of the earth, whether they walk with
their heads upwards or downwards, are attracted towards
the centre of the earth by the law of gravity,or the
tendency that everywhere exists,in a smaller or lighter
body, to be attracted towards a mass that is larger, or of
greater weight . Upwards and downwards are relativeterms, varying with the position of the object about which
we speak?“
I t may notbe out of place t o insert here the reasons usually given for therotundity of the earth.
1 . Nearly every part of the earth has been visited, but no limit has beenfound to it .2 . By sailing always in an eastern di rection without ever turning to thewest, or, by sailing always in a western di rection, without ever turning to theeast, ships arrive at the same place whence they departed . Not many weekspass over without the arrival in England of Ships that have sailed round theworld . This, it may be said, is not absolutely impossible upon Buddhistprinciples ; but then, as the Aswakanna rocks, outside which is the nearestway we could go, are miles in circumference, i t would requiremorethan 200 years to accomplish the voyage, sailing at the rate of 200 milesevery day.3 . When there are tall objects at a distance, w e can see only the top, but as
we approach them,w e see gradually the parts that are lower. The most
satisfactory test of thi s law is at sea, because there w e have no inequalities ofany consequence to intercept the View . By ascending to the top of themast
,
sailors can see distinctly things that they could not see at all from the deck ofthe vessel . In every part of the earth and sea similar effects are observed.
When looking at a Ship approaching the shore through a telescope, whils t itis yet in the horizon, the upper parts o f the mast are seen distinctly , so thatthe colour and shape of the flag can be distinguished, but the deck, thevessel i tsel f, cannot be seen at all .4 . The shadow of the earth is circular, as seen when thrown on themoon
dur ing an eclipse.
102 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
with the science upon which its conclusions rest . But I
may state, that there is a general law in existence, that all
the parts of the universe,whether large or small, influence
each other,and are dependent on each other . I will ex
plain what I mean by an illustration . Until the inventionof the telescope, the number of known planets was six :
Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn ;but since then no fewer than fifty
-five others have been
discovered,the existence of which was entirely unknown
previously to this period. In 1781, SirWilliam Herschelldiscovered the planet now called Uranus . This planet was
closely watched from that time, and as certain irregularities
were observed in its motion that could not be explained bythe action of the planets then di scovered, two young men,Adams of Cambridge, and Le Verrier of Paris, unknown
to each other, set themselves to the task of calculating thecause of this irregularity . Each arrived at the same conelusion, that the cause must be the existence of a planet
outside the orbit of Uranus ; and they then sought out the
position in which the planet would be found . When LeVerrier had completed his calculations, on the 23rd Sept . ,1846, he wrote to Dr . Galle, one of the Astronomers Royalin the Observatory at Berlin, informing him that thelongitude of the planet he was to seek for would at that
time be 326 degrees, and requesting him to look for it
there . The astronomer did as he was requested, and found
the planet “ that very night . ” The name of Neptune wasgiven to it. It is miles from the sun
,and
mi les in di ameter. It is evident, then, that if the
astronomer could tell the existence of an object one twenty
MAHA MERU . 103
fourth of the size of Maha Méru , and nearly nine hundredtimes more distant from us
,he could easily ascertain the
existence of that mountain, if there is such a place, even
though it were impossible to see it ; but the same sciencethat told of the existence of Neptune, and its exact position,though human eye had never seen it from the foundation
of the world,tells us
,with equal certainty, that it is ini
possible for a mass like Maha Meru to exist at all in the
present ec onomy of the universe .
2 . If there were such a mountain as Maha Meru, we
ought to see it from Ceylon,on the principles of Buddhism
,
as its rays are said to strike the Sakwala rock, whi ch is
much more di stant from it than the continent in which w e
live. This will be seen from the figure on the next page, ifA represent Maha Méru , B Jambud ipa, and C the Sakwala
rock. The same diagram,in whi ch the proportions are
drawn according to the heights and distances given in the
text, shews also that there is no obj ect coming between
Jambudipa and the summi t of Maha Meru. Perhaps it
will be said that its rays do not give the kind of light by
which objects are seen . But are we not told that theserays give colour to the seas
,as well as the ski es, connected
w ith our continent ? Again,we are told that the eastern
s ide of MahaMéru is of silver and its southern of sapphire .
But is not the moon said to be of a simi lar substance
Then, if we can see the welcome face of the moon, formedof crystal and Silver
,why cannot we see the face of Maha
Meru , which is formed of sapphire and Silver, according toBuddhi st science And if it be said that it is too distantfor us to be able to see it
,I ask, how is it, then, that we
106 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
the same reason, an arrow sent perpendicularly into theair would return to the place whence it was Shot from the
bow, because the motion of the earth would be communicated to the air and the arrow . There must also be some
reason why the arrow returns to the earth, and does not
fly away into space . It has been di scovered that its fall
is occasioned by what is called the attraction of gravitation,a property by which, as we have already noticed, every
particle of matter has a tendency towards every other
particle of matter, so that all bodi es not only attract otherbodies
,but are themselves attracted ; and the property is
mutual and universal . This force increases in known proportion to the nearness of bodies to each other, and by the
same law it decreases as they recede from each other .Every two portions of matter within the universe attracteach other with a force proportional directly to the quan
tity of matter they contain,and to the inverse square of
their distances . The force is also in proportion to the
quantity of matter contained in the body ; the more massive body exerting the greater power of attractiveness .
The sun attracts the earth,the earth the moon
,and the
moon the waters of the ocean ; and all act upon each
other. The earth,then, being a far larger mass than any
object near it,everything upon it is attracted towards
its centre in a straight line ; and it is for this reason that
the arrow returns from the Sky and falls to the ground .
But there is another force of a different kind , affecting
everything upon the surface of the earth . It acts in this
way . If a piece of lead, attached to a string, be turned
rapidly round,and the string breaks, the lead will fly off
MAHA MERU. 107
to a considerable distance . There is the same tendency tofly off in all things whirled round by the turning of the
earth ; but this tendency is counteractedby the other force,the force of gravitation . There are thus two forces acting
upon everything near us ; one force pulling things towards
the earth, and the other tending to send them away from
it . Now at the height of miles from the
the off-flying force counteracts or overcomes, the force by
which objects are attracted to the earth ; and, therefore,everything connected with the earth, and carried with it as
it turns round day by day, must be within that distance .There cannot, therefore, by any possibility, be a mountain
like Maha Meru upon this earth,or connected with it, as it
is said to be miles high ; a height that would
necessitate its being hurled into space .4 . We know exactly at what place it is midnight, and
at what place it is noon,at any given moment
,and the
exact distance also between the two places ; and we canthereby prove that there can be no mountain between the
two places of the size of Maha Méru ,as taught by Buddha .
5 . The Buddhists seek to place Maha Méru in some
part of the world unvisited by Europeans ; and the NorthPole especially is one of their favourite positions . But
the poles of the earth are not miles from Ceylon ; so
that if the centre of Maha Méru were at the North Pole, itwould not only reach to Ceylon
,as the semi-diameter ' of
this mountain is miles,but it would reach nearly
twice as far as the moon . As Maha Méru is fifty times
larger than the earth, it is evi dent that it cannot be
Maury’s Physical Geography of the Sea.
108 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O E THE BUDDHISTS .
upon the earth ; and when some adventurous man of the
coming time shall succeed in reaching the North Pole, weare certain that he will not find there a mountain likeMaha Meru .
There can be no doubt that Buddha taught the existence of Maha Méru . These are his very words : Sinéru ,
Bhikkhawé, pabbatarajachaturasiti-i ana-sahasséni sysména ; chaturasiti-yéjana-sahassani wittharéna ; chaturésiti-i ana-sahassani maha samuddé ajjhégalho ; chaturasiti-yéjana-sahassani samuddé Priests "
the great mountain Sinéru is i anas in length ;
i anas in breadth yéjanas sunk in the
great ocean ; and i anas above the great ocean .
”
An attempt may be made to set aside the consequences ofthis exposure of Buddha’s ignorance
,by saying
,that this
is a kind of mistake that does not invalidate his doctrines ;Buddhism may still be true as a religious system. But this
is a fallacy that I am most anxious to set aside . If Buddha
said that which is false,under the supposition that it
is true, he betrays ignorance, imperfect knowledge, and
misapprehension . He cannot,therefore
,be a safe teacher ;
there may be some things about his religion that are true,as there are about every religion ; but it is not a reve
lation ; its author was a mere man, with limited and
imperfect knowledge ; and to receive it as the pure un
mixed truth,is a mischievou s and fatal mistake .
When the existence of Maha Méru was denied some
years ago,a writer calling himself Kahagallé Mohattala
,
said that Buddha intended all he taught about Maha Méru
Satta Suriyuggamana Suttanta. : AnguttaraNikaya ; the 7th Nipata .
110 LEGENDS AND THE ORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
to see it . But if it exists, it ought to be seen, as it is
nearly as high as Maha Meru, and about the same distance
from us . Three of the Sakwalas are always contiguous to
each other, as we learn from the Commentary on the
D igha Nikaya, Mahapadana Suttan ; in which we are told
that three of the Sakwalas touch each other,like three
wheels,or three hoops, and that between the three there
is the LOkantarika hell, miles in size . All the
Sakwalas are alike in their arrangement, each having a
Maha Méru , sun , moon, etc . But every object of the size
of a Sakwala, in whatever part of visible space, has been
examined by the telescope . Bodies have been discovered
with phases like the moon ; others with dark spots, or with
belts,upon their surface ; and another with a luminous
ring near it,
mi les broad . Several are seen to have
moons revolving round them as the moon revolves round
the earth,and some stars revolve around each other ; but
anything like the appearance presented by the Sakwala of
Buddhism,has not yet been discovered, and we may
venture to say,never will, if the analogy presented by
numberless facts is to be regarded .
4 . THE CIRCLES OF ROCK AND SEA.
The argument from the calculations of the astronomer
is applicable to all the seven circles of rock and sea, with
equal fatality to their existence . And besides that, if the
mighty steps that are said to form the pathway toward the
heaven of Sekra really exist, they ought, according to the
common laws of vision , to be seen from Ceylon, as being
one of the islands attached to Jambud ipa.
THE SUN AND MOON .
5 . THE SUN AND MOON .
We have learnt what the ideas of the Buddhists are asto these luminaries . But what are the facts, as taught by
incontrovertible science ? Instead of the sun going round
the earth,it is the earth that goes round the sun. If the
sun and other Objects in the heavens go round the earth,such is their immense distance from it, that the sun must
travel miles in a minute, the nearest stars mustrush through the Sky at the rate of miles in
a second of time,and the more distant Stars, all of which
are much larger than the earth, with a rapidity that no
numbers can express . The sun is upwards of
miles from the earth,when it is the nearest to us . The
mode in which these numbers are found out may be learntfrom any work on practical astronomy there is no mysteryabout them ; they may be calculated by those whom I now
address . As we know the size of the Sakwala, we are
certain that,by native computation, the sun can never be
much more than Six millions ofmiles from us, when visible ;and science tells us that it is miles in diameter
,
and not 500, as stated in the native books . From theearth to the moon is miles
,and this luminary is
about 2000 miles in diameter and not 490, as given by
native authors . According to European astronomy, founded upon known and proved data
,the distance from the
moon to the sun is never less than of miles,
but according to the Buddhists,who found their numbers
upon imagination only, it is, in some instances, within the
112 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
distance of one yoj ana, or ten miles . We may easily learnthat the native numbers as to the relative distances of
these two bodies from the earth, cannot be right . When
we look at the sun through a telescope its apparent sizeis very little altered, on account of its immense di stance ;it is much the same in appearance as when seen by the
naked eye . But when we look at the moon through the
same instrument, it is like looking at another world ; rocksand valleys can be seen and measured
,and the shape of an
object as small as the fort of Colombo can be distinguished .
The moon is almost as near to us in reality,as the height
given to the Yugandhara rocks ; and it is evident, there
fore,that if these rocks exist, the moon must strike against
them,in her passage through the sky, from the force of
gravitation, acting according to its invariable law . It is
further evident that the principles of Buddhism are wrong
altogether, because, if it were possible for the moon toapproach so closely to Maha Méru as to come within a
distance of miles, she would be so powerfullyattracted towards the mountain
,from its immense massive
ness,that her motion would be entirely di sarranged . The
moon is not a luminous body in itself, but is Visible becauseit reflects the rays of the sun ; and when a smaller portion
of its surface appears, it is not from any covering as by a
vessel,or from any overpowering by a superior light
,but
from its illuminated portion being turned away from the
earth . The half of its surface is always bright, except
during an eclipse ; but from our position on the earth we
can only see the whole of its brightness when it is opposite
the sun .
114 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
for the ridges and valleys, as in a map of the countries o f
the earth . In 1856 Professor Smyth visited the island of
Teneriffe, for the purpose of making experiments on variousdi sputed points connected with the heavenly bodi es . His
observations were made at and feet above the
level of the sea . At both elevations he ascertained the
warmth of the moon’s light .
It is thus proved that nearly every one of the proposi
tions made in the native books,as to the sun and moon, is
contrary to truth . The astronomers of the w est were nearly
in equal ignorance with those of the east until the inven
tion or improvement O f the telescope,by Galileo
,about two
hundred and sixty years ago . This instrument at onceupset all the old notions about an earth at rest and arevolving sky ; and it now becomes an agent of destru o
tion to the supremacy of Buddha,more fatal than the
arrow of the archer who tried to take hi s life at the in
stigation of his brother-in-law, Déwadatta, or the Stone
hurled against him from the Gijhakuta rock .
6 . THE THREE PATHS .
The statements that appear in the native books respect
ing celestial phenomena all lead to the conclusion that theywho made them were unacquainted with any other country
besides India. The speculations about the different de
grees of rain when the sun is in different paths can only be
true of one region ; because, when it is cold and rainy in
one part of the world,it is warm and dry in another ; and
in some parts of the world, as the coasts of Peru and Mexico,and the deserts of Africa, Asia, and Australia, there is no
THE THREE PATHS. 115
rain at all, in any season of the year . Of these things thenative authors were ignorant ; they were guided by whatthey themselves saw
,in their own loc ality ; and from not
having the benefit of the enlarged observation of travellersto other portions of the earth, they have fallen into the
errors they set forth as religious truth . It is difficult to
arrive at certainty as to what they say about the motions
of the sun,the explanations given by the native pundits
being contradictory : but if I am not mistaken, there are
three : 1 . The sun is in different paths, according to the
season of the year, each path being at a different elevation
from the earth . 2 . There is the (apparent) motion we see
daily from east to west . 3 . There is an annual motion,answering to our declination, in the passage of the sun
from Maha Meru to the Sakwala rocks, and its return from
the rock towards Maha Meru . About the last motion
there can be no doubt, as it is referred to in nearly all the
works that treat on these subjects . When near MahaMeru, its position is called anto ; when mid-way between
Maha Méru and the Sakwala rock, majjhima ; and when
near the Sakwala rock,bahi ; or inner, central, and outer.
On this system,the sun must appear to all the inhabitants
of Jambud ipa, to he sometimes to the north, sometimes
overhead, or in the zenith, and sometimes to the south .
But this is contrary to fact,as every one who has come to
Ceylon from Europe by way of the Cape of Good Hopecan testify. In England
,the sun is never overhead, and
never to the north ; near the Cape it is never overhead,and never to the south . But
,as in India and Ceylon it is
sometimes to the north, sometimes overhead, and sometimes
116 LEGENDS AND THE O RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
to the south,the Buddhist writers have so spoken ‘
of it
that it must necessarily be the same in all countries of
Jambudipa, upon their principles . This is another proof
that their information is confined and local,and that what
they assert w ith confidence, as the revelations of men they
call rabats, has no foundation in '
truth, and brings down
the intelligence of the rabats,upon these subjects
,to a
lower level than that of the schoolboy, in the present age .
7 . THE RISING OF THE SUN.
In what is recorded by Buddhist writers as to the position
of the sun,there is the same betrayal of a want of scientific
or experimental knowledge : a local occurrence is regardedas if it were universal . The sun is always, in every
moment of the twenty-four hours of the day, ri smg In
some part of t/i is world, and always setting in anothe r partof this world, the world in which we live, and that wecan personally visit . The worlds in which the inhabitants
have square or half-moon faces, or in which they never
grow O ld,must be other and separate worlds to this ; and
about the rising of the sun in them I can say nothing .
The sun is said to set on passing beyond Yughandara, by
which it is hid . But if so, why does it remain behind the
mountain so long What is it doing during the ten hours
of darkness,the length of the night in Ceylon ? And
how is it that in the north of Scotland, where I have lived,and know of what I affirm, at midsummer the light of the
sun is seen during nearly the whole of the twenty-four
hours of the day, in mid-winter the days being proportion
ately Short ? And how is it, again, that near the north
118 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
industry by the ants in the cinnamon gardens near Colomboand other places . If Rahu licks the moon with his tongue,how is it that immediately afterwards its surface is as
bright as ever, and not a fragment in its hollows or heaps
displaced ? And how is it that scientific men, and even
the naksaestrakarayas of the island, can tell to so exacta period as a second of time, for hundreds of years before
hand, that the" seizure will take place Is Rahu a livingmachinery that has life like a man
,and yet is obliged to
move with more regularity than a clock or a watch, and
this for thousands of years ? Then, there is not another
being like him in the whole universe . What does he doit for ? Does he suppose that he can stop the course of
the sun or the moon ? If he could,what would be the
benefit ? And when he has tried,and tried in vain
,for
SO many years, what a simpleton he must be to renew theattempt And, lastly, how is it, except upon the principles
of European science, that the solar seizure always takesplace at the time of the dark moon
,when the moon is
between the earth and the sun ; and that the lunar seizure
always takes place at the time the moon is full,when the
earth comes between the moon and the sun ,and intercepts
his rays ?
I am told that my labour here may be spared, as thereis scarcely any one who will read these pages that reallybelieves in the existence of Rahu . But is not this a de
claration and confession, that Buddha either told a wilful
untruth, or that he was himself deceived ? There can be
no doubt as to what I affirm ; because every time the Piritexorcism is read by the priests, they proclaim the damaging
THE ASUR RAHU . 119
fact that Buddha believed in the existence of Rahgh ‘
and .
in
his attempt to swallow the . sun and moon . Here are his
words,as they appear in the Sanyutta Nikaya, SabaGatha.
Wagga .
Thus I heard. Bhagawa was living in S itwatthi, inthe garden of Anatha Pindiko . At that time, the moon
god was seized by the aSI’
Ir Rahu . Then the moog-god,
remembering Buddha,spake this stanza :
w"
Namo té Buddha w iratthuWippamuttési sabbadhi,Sambadhapatipannosmi
T assamesaranan'
bhawati.
Adoration to thee, great Buddha " Thou art free from
all impurities . I am d istressed . Become thou a refuge
to me.
’ Then Bhagawa, in behalf of the moon-god, add ressed Rahu thus
Tathagatan’
arahantan'
Chandima saranan'
Rahu chandan’
pamunchassu,Buddhalékanukampakati.
In the rahat Tathagato, the moon-god has taken re
fuge . Rahu " Release thou the moon . The Buddhas are
merciful to the world.
’Then the asur RAhu , having re
leased the moon-god, went in great haste to the placewhere the chief asur
, Wépachitti, was, and after approaching him, stood in great terror on one side . The chi ef asursaid to him :
Kinnu santaramanéwa,Rahu chandan pamunchasi,Sanwiggariipo egamma,Kinnu bhitOwa tittasiti .
Why, Rahu, trembling, hast then released the moon ?
120 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OR THE BUDDHISTS .
In terror having come, why dost thou stand thus, afraid
The asur Réhu repli ed
Sattadhamephalé muddha,Jéwanto na sukhan' labbe
,
Buddha getabhi gitOmhi,Néchi muncheyya chandimanti .
If I do not release the moon,my head would be split
into seven (pieces) and were I to live, I could have no
enjoyment, as Buddha has recited stanzas (of
This is the Chanda Pirit . The Suriya Pirit is the same,substituting sun-god for moon-god
,with this exception ,
that in speaking of the sun-god Buddha says, Rahu "swallow not the traveller through the skies, who, with the
splendor of the heat of his shining orb, dissipates the dark
ness .”
These words, about which there can be no doubt as to
their being attributed to Buddha, are worse than weak .
They are not the result of ignorance alone ; they contain
what must be an intentional misguidance . We cannot
blame the prince GOtamo for not knowing more about
these things than the rest of mankind in that age ; but to
say that the sun-god or the moon-god applied to him for
protection from an asur, and that he professed to grant
this request,is to charge him with the utterance of what
he mus t have known to be untrue, and with the false
assumption of powers that he did not possess .
9 . THE WORLDS OF WATER AND WIND .
The native authors do not often venture upon a scientific
demonstration in proof of any of their propositions ; but in
122 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
be miles deep . This must be the sea to which wehave access
,because it is said to deepen gradually to this
number of miles from the shores of Jambud ipa, where it
is one inch deep . But what is the truth of the matter,as ascertained by experiment, a thousand times repeated ?
The sea has nowhere been found to be more than eight
miles deep,and few soundings have told of a depth of
more than five miles, the average not being more thanthree or four . The statement that the sea gradually
increases in depth from the Shore of the continent, is
another great mistake . There are maps of the principaloceans of the world, on which the depth of the water in
different places is marked ; and from these it is seen, that
in some instances the water is deeper near the Shore than
it is in the middle of the ocean . In the bed of the Atlantic
there is a deep valley,averaging in
,
depth five miles ; but
the depth between Ireland and Newfoundland does notgenerally exceed one mile .
3 . Its S tillness . We are told that between themiles that are agitated by the wind
,and the miles
that are agitated by the fishes,in the Great World, there
is a stratum of still water miles in thickness . But
the Timira Pingala could not agitate the waters in which
it is said to live, for the space of miles, without
affecting the waters above , especially if, at the time, it was
near the tOp of its own waters . Besides, no part of the
sea is ever still . Were there not a constant interchangebetween the particles at the bottom and the tep, the
sea would lose its balance and its counterpoises . Not beingable to preserve its status, the water at the bottom would
THE SEA. 123
grow heavier and heavier, whilst that at the top wouldbecome lighter and lighter
,until the one became all salt,
and the other entirely fresh . By currents, and other
means,again
,there is a general circulation in the sea, by
which,in process of time
,water from one part is conveyed
to another part,and by which a general commingling and
interchange of the waters takes place ."
4. Its F ishes. We are told that in one part of the
sea there are mermen, with bodies like human beings, and
noses as sharp as razors,who rise up and down in the
water . This is .a fabulous creature, formerly supposedto exist by nearly all nations familiar with the sea ; butthough ships are now sailing upon every part of the ocean,no instance is recorded of a merman or mermaid having
been met with by any one whose word can be believed .
But what are we to say as to fishes miles in size ?
By what are they sustained ? They must eat,or they are
not fishes . They must be in absolute darkness,as light
does not penetrate more than a few hundred feet below the
surface of the sea . Then, again, water is compressed bypressure, or weight . At the depth of ninety-three miles it
would be twice as close or compressed as at the surface .Where the sea is 3000 fathoms deep, upon every foot of
water there is a pressure equal to pounds . The
reason of this I Shall be able to explain more clearly, when,in reference to the trees that are said to grow in the
Himala-wana, I shall have to speak of the properties ofair ; but I may here mention, that I have more than once
seen the following experiment tried at sea . An empty
Maury’s Physical Geography of the Sea.
124 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
bottle, closely corked, its mouth covered over with cordageand wax, is let down into the sea, during a calm. When
it is brought up again it is full of water, with the cork
reversed, shewing the immense pressure there must be to
force the cork into the bottle . At the depth ofmiles the water would become solid
,and the body of the
fish would become crushed with a weight so inconceivably
great, that it would be impossible for it to move, and,therefore, it could neither shake its ear or its tail, as the
Timira Pingala is said to do . Thus,all that is said about
the sea is as untrue as the statements about the Sakwalas
and the sun and moon .
1 1 . THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD .
1 . Land and Water. By native geographers, professing
to write by the gui dance of the unerring Bhagawa, the
preportion of water connected with our continent is repre
sented as being immensely greater than that of land. But
if the surface of the earth were divided into 200 equalparts, about fifty parts would be land
,and the rest water ;
and if the mass of the earth were divided into 1786 equalparts by weight
, the sea would be equivalent to only oneof them.
2 . 7756 Continents and Islands . Nothing answering tothe four continents has been discovered upon the face of
the earth ; nor can they exist, because, if existent, they
must have been seen by European mariners, who are con
tinually visiting every sea and shore . The faces ofmen are
not of one shape in one part of the world, and in anotherof an entirely diflerent shape . Except where artificial
126 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
they give us of their own is entirely wrong ; and when
they refer to any place out of the limits of their own
country, they give us fiction instead of truth, the imaginary
instead of the real . In this conclusion Buddha himself is
to be included . He mistook a small part of the world for
the whole,and beyond what he learnt from others of places
at a di stance from'
his native country,he was as ignorant
as the rest of the subj ects of Suddh Odana. But the
miles,as applied to India
,are not correct
,as it is in
no part more than 2000 miles from east to west,or 1500
miles from north to south, whilst the surface of the whole
earth contains nearly two hundred millions of square miles .
4. The Hid a-wana. This forest is Within sight ofplaces said to have been visited by Buddha in his reputed
wanderings from city to city ; and if we are to believe thelegends of his life
,it was no more trouble to him to go to
it through the air, than to take the alms-bowl through the
streets of any city near which he happened to live . Its
own name,the names of its mountains
,its position, its
size in comparison with Jambud ipa, and the rivers that
are said to rise within it,all point it out as being the w ild
and mountainou s region north of India . We should have
thought that whatever mistakes might be made with
regard to other countries of the world, there cou ld be
none in relation to so near a land. But the errors about
this forest are as numerous, and almost as monstrous, as
those about Maha Meru and the seven circles of rock .
It is said to have in it seven lakes, each of which is 1500
miles in length and breadth ; though its whole length is
only 1000 miles, and its breadth much less . All kinds
THE GEOGRAPHY O F THE WORLD. 127
of flowers and trees are said to grow there, though several
of those enumerated are never seen out of the tropics,less protected by artificial means . It is said to have
mountains 2000 miles high, though the highest mountains
in it,and there are none higher in any other part of the
world, are not five miles high . From the descriptions ofit, and the allusions to it, in almost every part of Buddhistliterature
,we should conclude that the forest is more like
the Paradise of the Scriptures than any other spot upon
the face of the earth . Prakrama B ahu, from hearing of
its fame, wished to visit it ; and when he died, on account
of his great merit he was born there as a bhfimatu -dewa,
there to remain until the appearance of the next Buddha,
Maitri . But thatmy Singhalese friends may see the kind
of place to which the spirit of their former king has been
transported,I wi ll make a few extracts from the Journal
of an English gentleman,who visited it about eighteen
years ago . The prospect was dreary in the extreme ;the quantity of snow upon the mountains was continually
increasing ; a keen north blast pierced through tent andblanket ; and the ground was everywhere hard and
parched—The people driving yaks looked miserably coldand haggard
,and their eyes
,much inflamed
,testified to
the hardships they had endured on the march .—For miles
continuously we proceeded over snow ; there was scarcely
a trace of vegetation,and the cold was excessive—We
met a small party going to Tibet,all of whom appeared
alike overcome by lassitude,difficulty of breathing, a sense
of weight on the Stomach,giddiness
,and head-ache .—I
found it almost impossible to keep my temper under the
128 LEGEND S AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
aggravations of pain in the forehead,lassitude
,oppression
in breathing, a dense drizzling fog, a keen wind, a slippery
footing, where I was stumbling at every few steps, and
icy-coldWet feet, hands, and eyelids—Sometimes, whenthe inhabitants are obliged from famine to change theirhabitations in the w inter, the old and feeble are frozen to
death,standing and resting their chins on their staves ;
remaining as pillars of ice, to fall only when the thaw of
the ensuing spring commences —There is no loftier country
on the globe than that embraced from the Donkia Pass,
and no more howling wilderness ; well might the Singtam
Soubah describe it as the loftiest,coldest
,windiest
,and
most barren country in the world. Never in the‘ courseof all my wanderings, had my eye rested on a scene so
dreary and inhospitable . The cities of the plain lie sunk
in no more death-like sea than Cholamoo lake, nor are thetombs of Petra hewn in more desolate cliffs than those
which flank the valley of the Tibetan There are
brighter spots in the Himalayas, but they are pleasant fromcontrast
,rather than from reality, and to an inhabitant of
the luxuriant island of Ceylon would appear to be most
undesirable places for a residence . The native writers
refer more especially to the parts where there are high
mountains and extensive caves, and to the great lakes from
which the rivers of Jambud ipa take their rise ; and of
these regions this is the character—cold, barren, andcomfortless
,to a degree that has few parallels on earth .
Hooker’s Himalayan Journals .
LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
refer to the places where its stream is covered by snow ;the passage through the sky to some lofty waterfall ; and
the breaking of the rocks to a rapid rush of the waters
after some temporary obstruction by glaciers and other
causes ; but the five rivers of our day, “ the Punjaub,”
are the Jailum, Chenaub, Rawi, Beas, and Sutlej , none of
which have any connexion with the Ganges,and all that
is said about the size of the river near its source, and its
course around the lake,is contrary to factfi"
13 . THE JAMBU AND NUGA TREES .
There are several remarkable trees recorded in theBuddhist annals
,but I shall confin e myself to the two I
have just named . The Jambu tree is said to be a thou
sand miles high,and the Nuga seventy miles the
’
first is
in the centre of Jambud ipa, and the other in the Himala
wana . But it is utterly impossible that such trees can
exist. The process by which I Shall prove it may seemtedious
,but it is sure
,and will Show the fallacy of many
other assertions of the Buddhists . In order to live, trees ,as well as animals
,mu st have a certain amount of air.
Air is elastic,and has weight it may be compressed into
a smaller space than it occupies under ordinary circum
stances,to an extent immensely greater than water, to
which I have previously referred . It is, therefore, much
thicker at the surface of the earth than it is above and it
becomes lighter, gradually, the higher we rise . The air
near the surface of the earth is pressed down by the air
Thornton’s Gazetteer,art . Indus . Journal of the Bengal Asiatic
Society, vol . xiii . p . 232.
THE JAMBU AND NUGA TREES . 131
above it, with a force of fifteen pounds to the square inch .
In this way. There is a small heap of cotton, scattered
lightly ; if we throw more cotton upon it, the heap will
be pressed,and become thicker in proportion to the quan
ti ty of cotton we throw ; and if we could throw as much
as would make a mountain, the original cotton would bepressed down to a
'
firm and solid mass . It is in the same
way with air ; the air near the surface of the earth is
pressed ' down, and becomes thicker, from the weight
of the air above . We know, too, that the air does
not extend many miles above the surface of the earth .
We cannot tell exactly how high, but from the reflection
of the sun’s rays after sunset, it is concluded to be abou t40 or 45 miles . Beyond that distance we are certain that
there cannot be any air the existence of which is appre
c iable . The air, at a certain distance up, becomes too
thin to sustain life. Thus when persons ascend high
mountains, as we have seen with the travellers in the
Himalayas, or rise to a greater height in balloons,there is great difli culty in being heard, though speaking
loudly ; birds are unable to support themselves ; there is
an,oppression in breathing ; the veins swell ; the blood
ru shes to the nose ; the forehead throbs ; and a sleepiness
creeps on that, if not arrested, would end in death . In the
elevated plains of South America the inhabitants have
larger chests than those of lower regions—an admirable
instance of the animal frame being enabled to adapt itself
to its peculiar circumstances . A person breathing upon
the top of Mount Blane, although extending his chest inhis usual way, takes in only half as much air as he does at
132 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
the foot of the mountain?“ There is an analogous effect
upon plants . AS we ascend the mountain side, there are
certain kinds of plants that grow near the foot, which soon
di sappear the plants that succeed them at a little higherelevation
,disappear in their turn ; the number of kinds
that will grow becoming less and less until at last an
elevation is reached in which nothing can grow . The
higher we rise the greater is the cold, for the same reason,the rarity or thinness of the air, and from the distance
above the surface of the earth, where the heat is greatest .
In the Himz’
tla-wana, when we rise to the height of about
feet,there is perpetual snow, and neither animals
nor plants can live at these elevations,on account of the
extreme cold . We can suppose that at the same height,
away from the mountains, the air will be colder still . It
is not possible, therefore, that there can be trees reaching
into these heights,where the cold is so intense
,and the
air is too thin to sustain life .
There is a kind of breathing or respiration going on in
plants, as well as in animals . They drink in one kind ofair, oxygen, and give out another, carbonic acid, con
tinually, by night and by day, in sunshine and Shade .
They also obtain from the atmosphere a large proportion
of what they require as food ; and this they procure by
decomposing the carbonic acid of the air,absorbing or
fixing its carbon, and setting free its oxygen, by means of
their green parts,and under the influence of light. For
these processes air is indispensably necessary . There are
o ther reasons why trees cannot reach above a certain
Arnot’s Elements of Phys ics .
134 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
imperfect sources, scenes of which he has heard, connected
with other people and lands,and has written down what
has been told him,with all its exaggerations . We can
not think it possible that any one who had lived in the
north of India could write about lions that are in shape
like a cow, and eat grass . It may be the yak or the bison
that is intended,as these animals answer somewhat to this
description, and are found upon the Himalayas ; but no
one acquainted with even the rudiments of natural history
would class them with lions . Then as to the lions them
selves . Who but a Buddhist ever talked, in sober earnest,of lions that could leap 80 isbas, which would befeet, or of lions that could keep pace with the sound of
their own voice,for the distance of 30 miles ? The fur
thest distance that a lion can leap is not much more than20 feet
,accordi ng to the testimony of those who have
watched its habits in its native jungles .
We have now had colossal proportions in nearly every
department of nature, but our records of the enormous are
not yet exhausted . The horse Kantako, upon which
Buddha rode, when he fled from the palace to become an
ascetic,was 36 feet long (from its neck to its tail) in the
same night it proceeded 300 miles, and could have gone
much further, if its progress had not been impeded by the
number of flowers thrown in its pathway by the dewas ;and at one leap it crossed the river Anoma
,a distance of
210 feet . When Anando told Buddha that the understanding of the circle of existence was not difficult, the
sage replied that he was not to speak in that manner,as it
was because of his being accustomed to it that it appeared
THE KING O F BIRDS . 135
to be easy. The Commentary says, among other examples,that
,in a similar manner, the ocean appears deep to others,
but not to the Timara Pingala and that the sky appears
vast to others, but not to the Supanna-réja. Now thi s
bird is 1500 miles in size ; each of its wings is 500 miles
its tail 600 miles,its neck 300 miles, its mouth 90 miles,
and its legs 120 miles . It requires a space of 7000 or
8000 miles in which to flutter its wings . Thi s creature,if it exists
,must be the king of birds, without any dispute.
The roc seen by Sinbad, the worthy sailor, was no bigger
than a cloud,and therefore very insignificant when com
pared with the supanna-raj a .
In this enumeration of the errors of Buddhism that are
contrary to fact, as taught by established and uncontro
verted science, I have been guided in my selection bythose that are the most extravagant
,and the existence of
which involves the most important consequences . Thereare many others
,of a similar kind, that I might notice ;
but by this means my work would be extended to an
inconvenient length ; as the errors contained in the wri
tings of the Buddhists are almost as numerous as the
leaves on which they appear. When I commenced myPali researches, I had not the most distant idea that I
should meet with these absurdities and extravagances in
the sacred books . I had read several of them,many times
over,in Singhalese but supposed that they were the mis
representations of some isolated dreamer in one of the
wihéras of the interior, who had lived all his days amidst
the reveries and phantoms arising from a weak and con
136 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O E THE BUDDHISTS .
fused intellect . But what has been my surprise, and I
may say my humiliation too, to find that they are re
garded as the revelations of the rabats—men in whom the
B uddhists place the utmost confidence, as they suppose
that they could literally turn the world upside down,divide the moon into two pieces
,stop the course of the
sun,and do a thousand other things equally w onderfulfl“
This ever-recurring defect, of a want of simplicity, and
a straining after that which is extravagant, vitiates all
Buddhist writings,even the most sacred . We are con
tinually told of things that are either impossible in them
selves, or so exaggerated by the narrator, that they become
impossibilities from the manner in which they are said to
have taken place . I do not include in this notice any of
the tales that are related about the dewas and their doings .
I deny the whole of the numerous statements that are
recorded, as to the visitation, assistance, and approbation
of these beings,said to have been given to Buddha and his
associates ; because, if they existed, which I also deny,they must have known that the Tathagato had no claim to
receive such marks of reverence at their hands,inasmuch
as they would learn from his sermons,that either he him
self was deceived as to many of his statements and doc
trines,or that he was wilfully deceiving the people whom
he addressed ; neither does it seem a very dignified posi
tion in which to place the supreme ruler of a celestialworld
,to represent him as holding an umbrella twelve
In this section my scientific authorities, in addition t o those I havealready named, have been—in astronomy, Herschell, Mosely, Lardner, andBreen and on general subjects
,the London and Penny Cyclopaedias .
138 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O P THE BUDDHISTS .
miles from Kapila-wattu,as the inhabitants of both cities
were accustomed to meet together for pastime in the Lum
bini garden, which was about half way between the two
places . With so small a territory as the one over whichSuddhOdana reigned as an inferior king, and with his own
court to provide for,how di d he find means to provide for
the women in the palace of his son ; and whence
came the wealth that the royal familymust have possessed,if the king could plough with an implement of gold, and
his son give away an ornament worth a laksha of trea
sure ? And what are we to say about the women
themselves How could so great a number of women be
taken from so confined a population ? Again,the num
bers represented as being present on different occasions ofimportance in the history of Buddhism are equally in
credible, as when it is said that Bimbisara visited Buddha
accompanied by Brahmans and householders,
and that priests were present in the city of
Patali-putta,when the third convocation was held .
"
The tales that are told about the acts performed by
Buddha, and the wonders attendant on these acts, need
only be stated, in order to be rej ected at once from the
realm of reality and truth . A moment after his birth,he
stepped upon the grou nd,and called out, with the voice of
a lion,
‘
“ AggOhamasmi lOkassa ; jetthohamasmi lOkassa ;
setthOhamasmi lékassa ; ayamantima j ati ; natthi dhz'
i ni
punabbaw éti . I am chief in the world ; I am principal in
The statements in this and the former paragraph are taken from the
Commentary on the Buddha Wanso, except the last, which is taken from
Turnour’
s extracts from the Dipawanso .
WONDERS . 139
the world ; I am supreme in the world ; this is my last
birth ; hereafter there is to me no other
When five months old he sat in the air, without any other
support,at a ploughing festival . At an exhibition of his
strength before his assembled relatives, prior to his mar
riage, he sent an arrow from his bow which split a hair at
the distance of ten miles,though at the time “ it were
dark as if it w ere night .” The following occurrences took
place at the time he received the supreme Buddhaship .
When meditating on the patichcha samuppéda circle of
existence,the ten thousand sakwalas (in any of which
BOdhisat may be born) shook twelve times . When heattained to the pre -eminent wisdom
,the whole of these
sakwalas were ornamented (as a festive hall) . The flags on
each side of the sakwala rocks,north
,south, east, and west,
reached to the opposite side,south
,north
,west, and east .
Those that were raised on the earth reached to the brahma
lOka, and those that were raised in the brahma-léka
reached to the earth . All the flower trees in the various
sakwalas pu t forth blossoms ; and to the same extent the
fruit trees became laden with fruit . On the trunks andbranches there were lotus flowers, whilst garlands were
suspended from the sky . The rocks were rent,and upon
them flowers appeared,in ranges of seven
,one above the
other. The whole Space of the sakwalas appeared like one
wide mass of flow ers, as everywhere they were spread .
The LOkéntarika hells,
miles in extent, in all these
sakw alas, were illuminated by a more brilliant light than
cou ld have been made by seven suns . The waters of the
Mahapadana Suttanta, Jetakatha-kattha.
140 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
great ocean,
miles deep,became fresh . The
streams of the rivers were arrested . The blind from birthsaw, the deaf heard the lame walked, and the bound prisoner was set free . Again, after he had preached his
first sermon,it is expressly said that “
then the founda
tions of worlds were shaken,and moved about
tumultuously,and a great and brilliant light was pre
These things are too absurd to require serious
refutation and the students at present in even the smaller
educational establishments of Ceylon,would feel themselves
aggrieved,were I to make the attempt .
There are endowments and powers claimed for the an
cient ascetics,and for BOdhisat in his various forms of
existence,of the most extraordinary character . We have
seen that the rishi Matanga prevented the sun from rising ,and bisected the moon . B indumati, a courtezan, turned
back the stream of the Ganges . The chakrawartti kingshad horses and elephants on which they could ride through
the air, and Visit any of the four great continents .
When there w as a famine in Wéranja, Moggalan,one
of the two principal disciples of Buddha,asked permission
from him to turn the earth over,that
,as its under surface
is like virgin honey, the starving population might thereby
be fed and when he was asked what would become of the
inhabitants of the earth,he replied that he would cause an
extension of one of his hands, and collect in that all the
people,whilst he inverted the earth with the other . AS
Jfitakattha-kattha. Dhamma-chakkappawattana Suttanta. I couldmultiply the record of these marvels to an Indefinite extent, from numerousother works but i t is not necessary, as I found on themno argument .
CHAPTER III .
THE ONTOLOGY OF BUDDHISM.
In exposing the errors of Buddhism that in the pre
ceding pages have passed under our review , we have been
aided,in most instances, by the sure deductions of science .
We now turn to another order of error, in the overthrow
of which we shall require assistance from a different
source, or the application of former principles in a new
form .
1 . FORMER STATES OF EXISTENCE .
The constancy with which reference is made to former
states of existence is one of the first things that strikes us
in looking into the writings of the Buddh ists . The per
sonal character of the Tathégato is invested thereby with
an apparent sublimity of abnegation and self-sacrifice .
The resolves of the imaginary Buddhas of past ages have
nothing to equal them, for disinterestedness , in all the
annals of heathenism. Myriads upon myriads of vears
ago,according to his own fictitious narrations , he might
have released himself from the pains and penalties of suc
cessive existence ; but he voluntarily continued in the
stream of repeated birth, that he might attain to the pri
vilege of being able to teach sentient beings the way to
the city of peace ; though he knew that he could only
FO RMER STATES OF EXISTENCE .
gain it by passing through innumerable births, and eu
during reiterated privations and hardships . But it takes
away from our admiration of the thought, when we re
member that the city of peace, to which he wou ld leadmankind
,is nothingness ; and that in many of his births
his recorded actions are unworthy of so great an aim, as
that which he professes to have set before him. With hisown circumstances, and those of others, in the most distant
ages,he professed to be as familiar as with the events of
the passing moment ; and the sacred books would lose
much of their attractiveness, if the apologues and tales
having a reference to the past were taken from them .
There can be no transmigration, in the usual sense of the
term,according to the principles of Buddhism ; but there
is the repetition of ex istence ; and this idea enters into
every part of the system. It is more frequently referred
to by Buddha than any other of his tenets, and has pro
duced a greater influence upon the people professing his
religion than any other of its speculations .
The pretensions of Buddha to a perfect knowledge of
the past is set forth in the following terms : The rahat is
endowed with the power,called pubbéniw ésanénan
’
,of
revealing his various former existences . Thus,I am ao
quainted with one existence, two existences, three exist
ences, four existences, five existences, ten existences, tw enty
existences, thirty existences, forty existences, fifty exist
ences, a hundred existences, a thousand existences, and a
hundred thousand ex istences innumerable san’watta
kappé, innumerable wiwatta-kappe ; innumerable san’
watta-wiwatta-kappe
144 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
I know that I was born in such a place, hearing such
a name, descended of such a race, endowed with such a
complexion ; that I subsisted on such an aliment, and was
subjected to such and su ch j oys and griefs,and was gifted
with such a term of existence ; and who, after death, was
regenerated here . Thus it is that he who is endowed with
the pubbéniwésanénan’ is acquainted both with his origin
and external appearance (in his former states of exist
The Atuw z'
twa on the above extract has this furtherexplanation There are Six kinds of beings who exercise
this power . Among these the titthiya(the professors
of other religions) have the power of revelation over forty
kappe,and not beyond
,on account of their limited intel
ligence ; and their intelligence is limi ted, as they recog
nize a limitation to corporeal and individual regeneration .
The ordinary di sciples (of Buddho) have the power of
revelation over a hundred and a thousand kappe,being
endowed with greater intelligence . The eighty principal
disciples have the power of revelation over a hundred
thousand kappe. The two chief disciples over one asan
kheyyan and a hundred thousand kappe, their destination
being fulfilled at the termination of these respective
periods . To the intelligence of the supreme Buddho alone
there is no limitation .
”
It might be difii cult, by mere reasoning, apart from the
Turnour : translated from the Patisambhidan’
,the 12th book of the
Khudaka N ikiryo . Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, vol . vii . p . 69 1 .
The same sentences, nearly word for word, are scattered throughout thesacred books, and may be found, among other places, in the Samannya PhalaSuttanta and the MahaPadéna Suttanta.
146 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
hardness . The rivers are powerful agents,in producing
Similar effects upon a mightier scale . It has been calcu
lated that the Ganges brings down daily into the Bay ofBengal, during the rainy season, tons of mud .
The sea wears away the coast in one place,and enlarges it
in another ; and its waters insinuate themselves among
crags and hills,until they are so undermined that they
fall . The same power that formerly depressed the valleys
we now cultivate, and upheaved the hills we climb, is con
tinually exerting its force . The south and west coasts of
England are gradually rising above the sea . The coast ofNorway has been elevated 200 feet within a recent period .
In South America there are tracts of country extendingthousands of miles, in which the ri sing and lowering ofthe land has been Observed, whilst in Mexico hundreds of
square miles have been thrust upwards,and a bill a thou
sand feet high has been formed in a short space of time .
In the great Chilian earthquake a mass of earth equal toan immense number of cubic miles was raised . The
smallest creatures are adding to the re-arrangement O f the
geography of the world. Coral insects have built a reef
along the shore of New Caledonia, four hundred miles
long,and another a thousand miles long on the east coast
of Australia, in some instances their works being severalhundred feet high .
These effects may be observed in Ceylon,by those who
are willing to make geology their study, and watch the
changes that are taking place around them ; but it must
be with a patience like that of the old ascetics, when theypractised dhyana, and a perseverance like that of Ebod
FORMER STATES O F EXISTENCE . 147
hisat,when
,as a squirrel , according to the fable, he
sought to dry up the sea, by lading out its waters with his
bushy tail . The land (of Ceylon) has for ages,” we are
told by Sir Emerson Tennent, been slowly rising from
the sea,and terraces abounding in marine shells imbedded
in agglutinated sand occur In Situations far above high
water-mark. Immediately inland from Point de Galle,the surface soil rests on a stratum of decomposing coral ;and sea shells are found at a considerable distance from
the shore . Further north, at Madampe, between Chilawand Negombo, the shells of pearl oysters and other bivalves are turned up by the plough more than ten miles
from the sea . These recent formations present themselves
in a still more striking form in the north of the island, thegreater portion of which may be regarded as the conj oint
production of the coral polypi,and the currents
,which for
the greater portion of the year set impetuously toward the
south . Coming laden with alluvial matter collected along
the coast of Coromandel, and meeting with obstacles south
of Point Calimere, they have deposited their burthens on
the coral reefs round Point Pedro, and these raised above
the sea-level,and covered deeply by sand drifts
,have
formed the peninsula of Jadna and the plains that trend
westward until they unite with the narrow cause -way of
Adam’s Bridge—itself raised by the same agencies,and
annually added to by the influences of the tides and men
soons .
On the north-west Side of the island, where the currents are checked by the obstru ction of Adam’s Bridge
,
and still water prevails in the Gulf of Manaar, these de
LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS.
posits have been profusely heaped, and the low sandyplains have been proportionally extended ; whilst on the
south and east, where the current sweeps unimpeded along
the coast, the line of the shore is bold and occasionally
rocky. This explanation of the accretion and rising of
the land is somewhat Opposed to the popular belief thatCeylon was torn from the main land of India by a convulsion, during which the Gulf O f Manaar and the narrowchannel at Paumbon were formed by the submersion of
the adjacent land. The two theories mi ght be reconciledby supposing the sinking to have occurred at an early
period, and to have been followed by the uprising still inprogress . But on a closer examination of the structure
and direction of the mountain system of Ceylon, it ex
hibits no traces of submersion .
”
A gentleman well known for his scientific attainments
informs me, that every stone in the Jafi'
na peninsula is
composed of hardened sand and shells,furnishing some
very beautiful fossil specimens . The shells, in most instances
,particularly in the interior of the peninsula, have
been petrified by the gradual substitution of calcareous or
flinty particles for the particles of the shell inside the
stone ; but, bordering on the sea, the shells themselves are
still to be traced in the rocks . The peninsula is risibtggrowing and extending into the sea abou t Point Pedro .
Nearly the whole of our present lands and continentswere formerly under the sea, as is proved by the remains
of marine animals and plants that are found deposited
below the surface of the earth ; and it is not only in the
Sir J . Emerson Tennent’s Ceylon,vol . i . p . 12 .
150 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
earth or rock it will most probably be found ; and if weknow the earth or rock
,we can tell what kind of form w ill
be the most abundant in its fossil remains . Of many ofthe curious creatures that formerly existed
,only a few
fragments have been found . Among them are birds of allsizes, from an ostrich to a crow,
and lizards with a bird’s
beak and feet . Near the shore, in the ocean,were fishes
with a pavement of teeth covering the palate,and enabling
them to crush and eat the crabs,lobsters
,and other shell
fish that there abounded . Further out at sea were largeand voracious Sharks . Reptile like animals were at onetime the most numerous and powerful . The plesiosaurus
united the characters of the head of a lizard,with the teeth
of a crocodile,to a neck of immoderate length , so that it
has been compared to a serpent threaded through the shell
of a turtle . On the land were crocodiles in greatwariety.
One animal was taller than an elephant ; but instead of atrunk it had a long narrow snout
,armed with strong and
Sharp tusks and another had a body half as long again as
an elephant,with feet so large and strong that a crocodile
would be crushed by it at a single blow. The Himalayas
contain the remains of a gigantic land tortoise, twelve feet
in length and Six in height . The megatherium lies in the
vast plains of South America . It is larger than an Indian
bull,and has claws of immense length and power . The
length of the body is eighteen feet, and its girth fourteen
feet ; and the thigh bone is nearly three times the Size of
that of an elephantfi“
The geological facts I have recorded, are principally taken from Lyell,Ansted and Mantell .
FO RMER STATES O F EXISTENCE . 151
There can be no doubt that the condition of the world,in the ages of which we are speaking, was very different
to anything that is presented in our day . Now if Buddhalived in these distant ages
,and had a perfect insight into
their circumstances,as he tells us he had
,how is it that we
have no intimation whatever,in any of his numerous re
ferences to the past,that the world was so different, in
these respects, to what it is now,? We have exaggerations
of present forms of existence ; a thousand arms given to
Mera, and a height higher than the moon to Rei hu but
of the innumerable creatures that then lived, and are now
found in a fossil state,he says not a word. According to
his discourses,there were
,at that time
,the same kinds of
trees, of reptiles, of fishes,of birds, and of beasts, as in his
own day. He was himself, as we learn from the JAtaka
Waunana,an elephant
,a lion
,a horse
,a bull
,a deer, a
dog, a guana, a j ackal, a monkey, a hare, a‘pig, a rat, a
serpent,a frog
,a fish
,an alligator
,a hansa bird, a pea
fowl, an eagle,a cook, a woodpecker, a water fowl, a
jungle-fowl, a crow, a snipe, and a kindura, or merman,which is a fabulous creature
,commonly met with in old
tales, but never seen in this age of universal observationand enquiry. How is it that in his numerous births he
was never any kind of creature except those that are com
men to India ? The only conclusion we can come to is,that he knew nothing about the beasts that roamed in
other lands,or the birds that flew in other skies and that
as he was ignorant of their existence he could not intro
duce them into his tales . AS we are told that he was
never born in any smaller form than a snipe, it might
152 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
have been an indignity to him to be one of the organismsfound at Bilin
,so small that there are forty-one thousand
millions of their shells in a cubic inch ; but it would havebeen none to be a giraffe in the present kalpa
,or a mega
therium among the creatures that are extinct . It will be
said that he was never born but in Jambud ipa, and that
therefore,he could not be any creature not found in India ;
but it is evident that by Jambudipa he meant the whole
of the space inhabited by men, or man
’s earth,about the
size and shape of which he was as ignorant as all the other
men who then lived .
Then again,how are we to believe his statements when
he speaks of Benares and other cities as having existed
for many myriads of years,when we know that an entire
change in the very formation of the countries in which
they are situated has taken place ? That the region now
called India has partaken in the general interchange of
land and water,we have proof in the fossil remains that
are plentifully and extensively found in the peninsula .
Remains of the Sivatherium and mastodon, large animalsthat once haunted its plains, and of the hippopotamus that
once frequented its rivers,may now be seen in museums .
The remains of the vegetable world tell us of the d iffer
ence between its present and former atmosphere and
temperature . At Chirra Ponj i, north of Calcutta, there
is a bed of coal , 4300 feet above the level of the sea ; and
there are evidences , in the same neighbourhood, of great
upheavement from igneous action . The hills not far distant
are covered with a stratum of marine shells, and in some
places there are the remains of an ancient coast, as is seen
154 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
thirty three cyphers . I have not metwith any confirmation
of kings living an asankya in the Text of the Pitakas ;but in the commentary it is said to have been declared by
Buddha that men lived to this astounding age .
The Buddhawanso is a history of the twenty-four
Buddhas who preceded Gétamo, and was delivered by
Buddha himself in the first year of his supremacy, in
order to convince his relations that the course he was
taking had high au thority in its favou r . In Speaking of
Kakusandha,the third Buddha before himself
,he says
“ In this kappo the Bhagawa Kakusandha was born,
whose allotted term of existence was forty- thousand years .
That term of existence gradually decreasing was reduced
to ten years ; and subsequently increasing again to an
asankheyyan,and from that point again diminishing
,had
arrived at the term of thirty-thousand years .” It is in
this manner that the decrease and increase in the term
of human life takes place . It commences with an asankya
and goes down gradually to ten years ; and it then rises
again,until it reaches an asankya. In the same com
mentary we are told that when the term of human exist
ence is years or upwards,it is not a proper time
in which for a Buddha to appear,because under so pro
tracted an existence the human race have no adequate
perception of birth,decay
,or death .
” Nearly at the end
of the commentary we have this statement Aparimeyyé
ito kappe, chaturo ésinsu nayaka . Infinite kalpas before
this, there w ere four great ones A Chinese
legend tells that before the present kalpa “ ten quadrillion
times a hundred quadrillions of kalpas,each kalpaconsist
FO RMER AGES . 155
ing of 1344 millions of years, there was a chakrawartti
The book of the Dipawanso,'
i' after enumerating the
dynasties of all kings from the commencement of royalty,and then referring to the O kkéka, or Sakya, race, to
which Buddha belonged,says “ The whole of these
monarchs, who were of great wealth and power, were in
number one laksha,four nahutans, and three hundred
Such is the number of monarchs of the
dynasty from which Bédhisat is From MahaSammata
, the first king,to Suddhédana, the father of
Buddha, there were kings,who reigned in nine
teen different capitals,all of which were known in the
time of Bhagawa; but several of them have since become
desolate, and even their Sites forgotten, among which we
must include his own native city, Kapila-watthu . But
the length of these dynasties,the monarchs of which lived
for all periods from an asankya to the present age ofman,
has no analogy in real occurrence . There are kings nowreigning who regard themselves as the successors of the
Caesars, and others who are called the children of the sun ;but this is merely an honorary form, and though repeated
is not received as fact . There is no dynasty now , on anythrone, that exercised the functions of royalty in the time
of Buddha .
The periods to which we are taken back by the authori
ties of Buddhism are so remote as to be beyond the power
Laidlay’s Pilgrimage of Fa Hian.
1 This is not one of the sacred books3: Turnour : Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, vol . vn. p . 922 .
156 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
of numbers to express them. Yet in the most distant of
these ages, the same languages were spoken as in the time
of Buddha ; there were the same manners and customs,the same kinds of dress and ornaments
,and the same
kinds of food ; men had the same names, and followed the
same occupations ; there were the same modes of govern
ment, the same castes, the same forms of religion, thesame modes of travelling
,the same denominations of coin
,
the same species of grain,and the same diseases and medi
cineS . But how is it possible for this unchangeablenessto have continued so long ? Does not Buddha himselfteach us the impermanence of all things ? There is notat the present moment a Single country upon the face ofthe earth occupied by the same people that lived in itthree thousand years ago
,if we except the Arabs, and
perhaps the Ceylonese and Chinese . The men of Israel,who existed then
,exist now ,
but they are exiles from their
fatherland. It cannot be, that in myriads of years, andwith intervals of myriads of years as well, there has
been so little change in the economy of the world as
is represented by Buddha ; and so little difference, as
to the manners and customs of mankind,between these
distant times and the times in which Buddha is said to
have lived.
It will be said that this sameness is a necessity, as the
w orld exists in successive series, one of which most inti
mately resembles another and that, therefore, the history
of any given period must necessarily be like other and
distant periods . Then , we reply, the present age, as wellas those that preceded it
,must have had its prototype in
158 LEGENDS AND THE ORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
dis covered ; but even if the perfect skeleton of a man were
found in some old drift,clothed with flesh
,and having
about him still the raiment in which he lived and theweapons with which he fought, and with a legible inscription around his place of burial
,so as to make it certain
that he was a real man , and no mistake, this would prove
nothing in favour of Buddhism. It would only show that
there were men upon the earth at an earlier period than is
generally supposed,but the argument we have adduced
would still remain in its full force ; because man could not
possibly have lived in the ages to which Buddha takes us,as the world was not then prepared for hi s reception, and
its circumstances were antagonistic to the existence of any
being with an organism like that of man . All analogy
teaches us that the position in which God places hiscreatures is always adapted to their frames and faculties .
Then, what becomes of the numerous tales about “ the
days of yore, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, or
some other king reigned in some other city ? The sum of
the ages given to these monarchs takes us back more vears
than the whole of the present generation of men couldcount before their death
,giving each man
,woman, and
child,five hundred thousand to do in a day . To a demon
stration, the statements of the Tathégato are“ not bistori
cally true and they ought,therefore, to be set aside as
unworthy of further notice,or handed down to posterity
as examples of the foolish things that men are led to
believe when they lose the guidance of the oracles
of God.
PRESENT EXISTENCE . 159
3 . PRESENT EXISTENCE .
There was error in all that Buddha taught in relation
to past existence,and when he Spoke to his disciples of the
germ of present being,in many instances he was equally
far from the truth . No one but himself, according to hisown account
,knew the manner of the origin of the
universe,and as it would have been of no benefit to his
disciples to understand it,he did not reveal it to them,
and says that all specu lation upon this subj ect is profitlessand vain . But in his teachings on the manner of the
origin of the present race of men,he is much more com
municative. He taught,correctly
,that the first inhabi
tants of the earth were pure,and free from evil ; but he
said, in addition, incorrectly, that they first appeared by
the apparitional birth,and could soar through the air, and
live without food ; their fall taking place through the
tasting of a substance,like boiled milk, that then grew
temptingly upon the surface of the earth . This may have
been a perversion of an old truth,and a wrong mode of
expressing what in its main principle was correct—therectitude of primitive man, and his fall by eating some
thing that was the means of leading him away from his
original purity . On the origin of the individual man,
Buddha leads his followers still further astray ; but into
this subject Imay not enter at any length . It may sufli ce
to say, that he attributes human conception to the most
absurd and impossible causes . Though born as men, we
may be subject to the most extraordinary transformations .
We may change our sex,not only in passing to the next
160 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
birth, but now. We may be born as men, for part of our
lives, and when the power of our merit is exhausted, wemay change to the inferior condition of women . We may
have to expiate some former misdeed, and on that account
be born as a female ; but we may live to accomplish the
expiation,and then be changed, in the same life, from a
woman into a We may be the one and the otheralternately ; for a time man
,and then woman
,in the
present life,and then return back again to our original
condition .
In the DhammapadaWannana, there is an account of a
setthi,resident in the city of Soreyya, the father of two
children,who was changed into a woman, because of a
foolish and irreverent thought in relation to a priest, and
as a woman had two more children . But as forgiveness
was afterwards asked from the priest, and granted, the
same person was restored to the former sex, and became a
rahat. That thi s change took place, and that the children
were born,was acknowledged by Buddha, according to
the story ; but all these things are pure inventions, and
there is,throughout
,the assignment of consequences to
impossible causes . The first change took place without
even the knowledge of the priest, no one can tell how ;and though the second took place in consequence of the
priest’s forgiveness,as it is not ascribed to his interference
or influence, it is simply confession of having done wrong
that in itself,without any other instrumentality, wrought
a miracle of the most extraordinary character ; and one
4“ Gogerly : Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal As iatic Society,Vol. i . p . 87.
162 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
4 . MAN .
We have seen that the voic e, or a look, may produce the
germ of human existence, according to Buddhism, from
which we should conclude that the nature and constitution
of man must be something eminently subtle and ethereal .
But instead of thi s,everything about him, after his birth ,
is represented as being material, or the effect of causes that
are material ; and as his existence is only the result of
certain constituents under certain circumstances,a mere
collection and continuance,at the separation or breaking
up O f these constituents he ceases to be, in the same way
that the cloud ceases to be when its particles are separated
and scattered in the shower, or the cart when it is broken
up and made into bundles of firewood for the market . To
continue the last illustration ; the cart is only a name ; itis nothing in itself but an idea it refers to a collection of
things of a certain form and size, and when they are
together we call them a cart ; but if we ask what the cart
is, as it is evident that neither the axle-tree, nor the wheel,nor the shafts
,nor any other separate portion, is the cart,
we are unable to tell what the cart is,except that it is a
name . In like manner if w e ask what the man is, as
neither the hair,nor the nose
,nor the arm,
nor the foot,nor any other separate member is the man, we are unable
to tell what the man is, except that there is a name .
These five khandas are the essentialities of sentient being.
1 . d a, the organised body. 2 . VVédana, sensation .
3 . Sannya, perception . 4. Sankhdra, discrimination . 5 .
Winyéna, consciousness . Besides these five khandas there
MAN . 163
is no other constituent that forms part and parcel of manas a sentient being. There is therefore, belonging to man
,
no soul,nor anything equivalent to what is commonly
understood by the soul. It cannot form any part of the
organized body,the twenty-eight elements and properties
of which are all defined. The soul may be attached to anorganism
,but it cannot be connected with it, and cannot
be one with it ; as body is one thing and soul another .
And it is equally evident that the soul cannot be in anyO f the other khandas not in sensation
,nor in perception,
nor in discrimination,nor in consciousness . These may be
faculties of the soul,but they cannot be the soul itself.
Then, if the soul is in none of these things, and they are
the whole of the constituents essential to existence,there
being no other, according to Buddhism,there is no soulfi"
This system tells man that he is a heap, a collection, anaccumulation
,an aggregation
,a congeries, an increment,
and nothing more . To develop light there is the lamp, the
wick,the oil and the flame and to develop the man there
must be the organised body and the four other khandas .
When the flame is extinguished, the light ceases to be ;when the khandas are broken up, the man ceases to be ;and no more
,eventually
,remains of the man than of the
light . There is great ingenui ty exercised in the treatment
of this abstruse subject by native writers ; but to follow
them through all their classifications and distinctions would
require an extended volume . The absence of originality,or the reverence they have paid to some authoritative
model, causes their expositions to be consistent with each9" Appendix, Note Z.
164 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
other ; and on this account, as we are not perplexed in our'
investigations by varied and di scordant views,we can rely
w ith the greater confidence on the conclusions to which
we have come as to their ontological doctrines .
The absence of the soul seems to render it impossiblethat there can be any moral retribution after the present
life but the Buddhists profess to evade this consequence,
by saying that when man ceases to exist,the principle of
upédéna, or cleaving to existence, causes the production
of another being, to which the karmma of the producer,the aggregate of all his actions
,in every state of existence
in which he has lived, in their ethical character, as good,or bad
,or neither good nor bad,—is transferred intact .
When existence ceases, the karmma still lives, and itpasses over to its new possessor
,with all its interests, pro
perties, obligations, and liabilities, whether of punishment
or reward . In the same way,one flame produces another
flame,with the same properties ; and one tree another tree,
of the same nature as itself,by means of its frui t. The
apostle Paul tells us,
“ That which thou sowest is not
quickened, except it die . But in this illu stration of the
doctrine of the resurrection,we are permitted to see the
manner of the revivification,and in some degree under
stand it ; a nexus can be traced between the grain,dead and
decaying,and the living stalk, as it carries nourishment
from the decomposed particles it “ swallows up” to the
opening flower or the bending ear of corn . And then,
above all,we are to remember that God giveth it a body
as it hath pleased him.
” But when existence ceases ,Buddhism presents us with no medium by which the
166 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
in the usual acceptation of the term. That which trans
mi grates is not the spirit, the soul, the self ; but the con
duct and character of the man, something too subtle to be
defined or explained . The analogy of the flame and the
tree is misleading and defective . The flame produces
another flame of the same nature, but the existence of the
one does not involve the going out of the other ; and from
one flame a thousand flames may be produ ced, all burning
simultaneously . The tree lives, in some instances many
hundreds of years, after it has begun to produce frui t, and
it always produces its like, something after “ its kind ;from a mango fruit comes a mango tree, and not a goraka,as from the goraka fruit comes a goraka tree, and not a
mango . The tree is one, but its fruits are many . But on
the principles of Buddhism, when the man dies, he only
produces one other being, and the being that he produces
is most generally a being of a nature entirely di fferent to
himself ; it may be an ant, a crow , a monkey, a whale, a
néga, an asur, an evil spirit, or a deity . The number of
sentient beings in the universe must ever remain the same,if each being inherits one separate and unbroken series
of karmma, unless it be in the period in which men can
receive nirwana . And by what means does it happen that
ju st as one being dies another is always beginning to exist,as the new being is produced, not by the upddéna of
the former being alone, but through the agency of other
causes,entirely separate from itself, but required to act in
unison with it . And how is it that these causes are always
in simultaneous operation at the very moment they are
required ? There must not only be these causes in Opera.
MAN . 167
tion at the very moment of the death of the being that
produces the new being ; but the result, the position of the
new being,must be of such a character as to give Oppor
tunity for the reception of the karmma that has to be
transferred,with all its inherent properties
,and afford
facilities for its exercise,in its own essential character,
whether of good or evil . To these grave diffi culties,Buddhism Offers no solution .
I can give no further explanation of the mysterious
upddéna, except that it forms one link in the patichcha
samuppe’
tda, or causes of continued existence . On accountof aw ijja, ignorance, sankhéro, merit and demerit are ao
cumulated ; on account of these accumulations, w inyyeinan,the conscious facu lty is produced ; in consequence of the
faculty of consciousness, némarupa, the sensitive powers,
the perceptive powers,the reasoning powers
,and the body
are produced ; on account O f némarfipa, the body and
sensitive faculties,the sadéyatanafi,
the Six organs of sense
(the eye, the ear, the tongue, the nose, the body, and the
mind) , are produced ; on account of the Six bodily organs,
phassa, contact (the action of the organs) is produced ; Oilaccount of contact, wedana, sensation is produced ; on
account of sensation, tanha, desire is produced ; in couse
quence of desire, upadana, attachment is produced ; in
consequence of attachment, bhawa, existence, is produced ;in consequence of a state of existence, jeti, birth, is pro
duced ; in consequence of birth, decay, death, sorrow,weeping
,grief
,d iscontent, and vexation are produ ced.
Even thus is the origin of the complete catenation ofsorrow. By the same rule, when one of these constituents
168 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
ceases to be, the next in the series ceases to be, until“ the
whole combination of sorrow ceases to be produced .
”
This is a theory of causation,or of a series of causations,
to which we cannot assent. We can understand how
demerit may arise from ignorance ; but how the conscious
faculty is produced by merit and demerit we cannot tell .
The conscious faculty once in existence,from it perception
may arise . But how does perception produce the body and
sensitive faculties Where these are, there will be theorgans of sense
,and then contact, and sensation, and
desire, in the prescribed order . But the great mystery
still is, how desire produces existence . Physiologists tell
u s, when they want to put away God
’s hand from God’s“ handy-work,
” that desire may produce instincts, change
the shape of a bodily member,or develop new instru
mentalities . Through desire,a race of birds that live in
marshy places may in time put forth longer legs and bills,to help them in their search for prey . Even allowing thisto be true, it would only be another proof that God adaptsthe powers of his creatures to their circumstances and
wants . But upédéna is not a desire to produce life, but a
desire to enj oy life and for the above rule to be applicable
here, the desire of enj oyment ought to produce the pow er
of enj oyment ; but that it does so is contrary to all ex
perience. There is a further law to be taken into the
account,that where there is no possibility of communica
tion , there can be no consequence or effect ; and as it is
utterly impossible for upddéna to act in places with which
it cannot communicate, it must be powerless as to the act of
production, in the manner claimed for it by Buddha . On
170 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
exercise of the senses . 2 . d a. In the worlds belongingto this division, there is the retention of the organised
body ; the intellectual powers are also retained, and are
active ; but the senses are not exercised or possessed . It
is a kind of obj ective existence,without anything sub
jective. The eleventh dewa-lOka,called Asannyasatta, is
an exception to this rule, as there is in it only the bodily
form, without the consciousness of existence . 3 . Ardpa.
These worlds are fou r in number, and in them there is no
bodily form but there are the four other khandas , sensa
tion , perception, discrimination,and consciousness . In the
fou rth of this class of worlds,Néwésannyénésannya, there
is a kind of dreaminess,in which there is neither con
sciousness nor unconsciousness . It is a nearer approach to
nirwana than any other state . The performance of the
dhye'
tna rites secures an entrance into one or other of these
worlds . Were a sentient being to pass through all thesestates of existence
,in all these worlds
,the period would
extend to maha kalpas,and years .
Then, if all existent beings are composed of one or other
of the five khandas,and all possible forms of existence are
included in one or other of the three series of worlds, in
none of which there is permanence of being, there can be
no all-pervading and infinite existence,from which all
inferior and finite existences are derived,to which they
belong,and in which they may again be lost .
The idea of the Brahmans is, that there is a supreme
existence, paramétma, fromwhich each indi vidual existence
has derived its being,but that this separate existence is an
illusion ; and that the grand obj ect of man is, to effect the
NIRWANA. 171
destruction of the cause of seeming separation,and to
secure the re-union of the derived and the underived,the
conditioned and the unconditioned . But Buddha re
peatedly, by an exhaustive variation of argument, denies
that there is any self or ego . Again and again,he runs
over the components and essentiali ties of being,enu
merating with tedious minuteness the classifications into
which they may be divided, in order to convince his
followers,that in whatever way these constituents may be
placed,or however they may be arranged, there can be
found in them no self. The same arguments that prove
there can be no inferior or finite self,prove also that there
can be no superior or infinite self, as all being is composed
of one or more of the same elements .
The idea of creation, according to Buddha, arose in this
way . When the inferior worlds are destroyed, many beingsobtain existence in the Sixth brahma-loka
,called Abas
sara . After living here the appointed time,eight kalpas
,
one of the brahmas appears again in a renewed brahma
world, of which he is the first inhabitant . He wishes that he
were not alone,and that there were other beings like him,
with whom he could associate . By and by other beings
appear in the same world . The‘
first being then thinks
that the second being is the result of his own volition ; and
concludes that he is the chief,supreme kattha, or the
maker ; nimétta, or the creator ; sanj ita, or the appor
tioner ; the controller, and universal parent. The beings
that subsequently appear in the same world, know that he
was the first,and having no recollection of their former
births, conclude that the thought of the first being is
172 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
correct, and that they have from him received their
existence .
The idea of eternity arises from a recollection of the
past . When men are able to trace their existence back
ward, through myriads of years, they conclude that they
have had no beginning and have existed for ever .
The whole of being is now before us ; the ways of all
worlds are presented to our vision ; but we are told that
every being in every world revolves in the round of the
patichcha samuppz’
i da,the circle of ex istence
,and that over
all and in all there is impermanency, decay, and death ;and we thus learn, that as there is no paramétma, no
infini te Spirit or self, there can be no absorption . And
yet,though there is no sentient Supreme Cause, there is a
cause for all things ; all existences are the result of some
cause ; but in no instance is this formative cause the work
ing of a power inherent in any being, that can be exercised
at will . All beings are produced from the upddana, attach
ment to existence,of some previous being ; the manner of
its exercise,the character of its consequences, being con
trolled, directed, or apportioned by karmma ; and all
sentient existences are produced from the same causes,or
from some cau se dependent on the results of these cau ses
so that upddéna and karmma, mediately or immediately,are the cause of all causes , and the source whence all beings
have originated in their present form .
So long as there is the upédéna attachment, there will
be the repetition of birth in some form or other of sentient
existence, and in one or other of the three series of worlds .
WVhen this attachment is destroyed, the repetition of birth
174 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
no boundary (neither birth nor death) asankhatar’
r, that
which is not aflected by cause or effect ; anuttara, that to
which there is not anything superior ; and padan , thatwhich has nothing to excel it as an advantage .
These are the characteristics of nirwana . That which
is void‘
,that has no existence
,no continuance
,neither birth
nor death, that is subj ect to neither cause nor effect, and
that possesses none of the essentialities of being, must be
the cessation of existence, nihilism,or non-entity .
" Thus
dark is the pall thrown by ignorant man over hi s own
destiny ; but the thought is too sad to be dwelt upon , and
we turn away from its painful associations,that we may
listen to the voice of one who had seen in reali ty visions
that were only feigned to have been seen by Buddha“ Behold, I shew you a mystery ; we Shall not all sleep,but we Shall all be changed . In a moment, in the twink
ling of an eye, at the last trump ; for the trumpet shall
“ Existence, in the eye of Buddhism,is nothing butmisery. I t is con
nected with disease, decay, and death . I t is subject to grief, wailing, pain,anguish
,despair
, and disappointment . I t resembles a blazing fire, whichdazzles the eye, but torments us by its effects . There is nothing real orpermanent in the whole universe. Everything perishes .’
“ Nothing, then, remained to be devised as a deliverance from this evil butthe destruction of existence itself. This is what the Buddhists call nirw frua.
“ So far as I can understand this abstruse doctrine, it is not absorption.
Viewed in every light in which the subject maybe considered , and tested by allthe definitions and arguments contained in the canonical works of Buddhism,nibban, to use an expression of Max Muller
,is nihilism, the annihilation
of existence, the same as the extinction of fire. That such is the fact appearsalso from the prajnaparamitaand metaphysics of K irsyapa. I t is
,moreover,
proved by the very nickname which the Brahmans apply to their Buddhistopponents , viz . , nastakas, ‘ those who maintain destruction or nihilism,
’and
sunyavoedins, those who maintain that there is a universal void.
’ —A1w is’
s
Lectures on Buddhism,p . 29 .
THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE . 175
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and weShall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality .
So when this corruptible Shall have put on incorruption ;and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall
be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death Is
swallowed up in victory . O death,where is thy sting ?
O grave, where is thy victory The sting of death is
sin, and the strength of Sin is the law. But thanks be to
God, which giveth us the Victory, through our Lord JesusChrist.” These are grand words
,and the extract is not
too long .
6 . THE REVO IiUTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE .
There is a periodical destruction and renovation of the
universe, not of our own earth, or sakwala, alone, but in
like manner of limitless (kap-laksha) sakwalas, with their
Maha Mérus, suns, moons, circles of rock, continents, and ,
seas . The destruction is by water,fire
,and w ind ; in this
order, but not in alternate succession, the destruction by
wind being only at every Sixty-fourth occurrence . Of thedestruction by fire
,which will be the next in order, Buddha
thus speaks : Priests there is a period in which, for
many hundreds of years,for many thousands of years
,
for many tens of thousands of years, for many hundreds of
thou sands of years,no rain will fall ; by whi ch all cereals,
trees, and creepers,all medicinal plants, w ith all grasses
,
all nuga and other large trees,and all forests will be dri ed
up, and will be no more thus, priests " all existing things
176 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
are impermanent ; therefore, etc . After the lapse of a
further immense period,a second sun appears
,byWhich
the smaller rivers, and the inferior tanks and lakes are
dr ied up and are no more . After the lapse of another
immense period, a third sun appears, by which the five
great rivers are dried up . After the lapse of another im
mense period, a fourth sun appears, by which the great
lakes whence the great rivers have their source,are dried
up . After the lapse of another immense period, a fifth
sun appears,by which the water in the seas
,a hundred
miles deep, is dried up ; then a thousand, ten thou sand,and eighty thousand i anas
,until only four thousand
i anas of water are left, which still further decreases
until the water is only one hundredmiles deep, fifty miles,a mile
,a cubit (many different numbers being mentioned)
until at last there is not more than would fill the feet marks
of cattle,or moisten the end of the finger . After the lapse
of another immense period,a sixth sun appears, when
Maha Meru begins to ignite,and the whole world, from
the sakwala rocks to the mansion of Sekra, sends forth one
unbroken volume of smoke . At the appearance of the
seventh sun,the earth and Maha Méru are burnt up, and
the flame reaches to the brahma-lékas . From the hell
Aw ichi to the brahma-lOka Abassara, there is then one
dark abyss, and the whole space is void” These revela
tions are made that the priests may learn therefrom the
impermanence of all things, and seek to free themselves
from all sensuous attachments .
That the next destruction of the earth will be by fire,
we know from another source ; but, as usual, when the
178 . LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
the rishis and rahats that they could exercise at will .There were other supernatural endowments
,that were con
nected with the exercise of prescribed rites,of an ascetical
character . By means of pathawi (earth) kasina, being
one, the faithful priest can become many . Having caused
an earth to appear in the Sky, or on the water,he can
walk,stand, or Sit on itS
’
Surface. By Ape (water) kasina
he can enter the earth as if it was water,and come out
of it ; he can cause water or rain to appear, create rivers
and seas,and Shake the earth with its mountains . By
tej o (fire) kasina, he can send forth smoke, and cause
flames to arise,and showers of burning charcoal to
descend . He can subdue the light proceeding from others,by the superior intensity of his own light . He has the
power to burn whatever he wills . He can cause a light by
which he can see anything, as by divine eyes . By wayo
(wind or air) kasina, he can move as fast as the wind, and
create wind or rain . By other kasinas he can cause
d arkness,turn whatever he wishes into gold, and pass
‘through walls and ramparts without touching them.
But the principal of these mystic rites is that of dhyana
or profound meditation . It was whilst engaged in this
exercise that GOtama obtained the Buddhaship . In the
first watch O f the night,as he sat under the bo-tree, after
he had overcome Mera, he received pubba-niwasa-gnyz’
rna,
the wisdom by which he could know the occurrences in allformer births ; in the second watch , he received dibba
chakkhun-
gny-c
’
rna, divine eyes, a vision clearer than that
ofmen in the third watch he received patichcha-semup
peda-gnyfma, the wisdom by which he could see the
MYSTIC POWERS . 179
whole concatenation of causes and effects—that this issorrow
,this the cause of sorrow
,this the cessation of
sorrow ,and this the path by which the cessation from
sorrow may be obtained ; and again, that these are the
attachments, or desires, this the cause of attachment, this
the extinction of attachment, and this the path leading to
the extinction of attachment ; and at the dawn of the day
he received sabbangnyéta-
gny z’
tna, the power of knowing
clearly and fully, anything to which he chose to turn his
The ~priest who intends to practice the dhyénas seeks
out a retired locality, as, the foot of a tree, a rock, a cave,a place where dead bodies have been burned
,or an uncul
tivated and uninhabited part of the forest, and prepares a
suitable place with his robe or with straw . He then seats
himself, cross-legged, in an upright position, with hi smind free from attachment and all evil thoughts
,and with
compassion towards all sentient beings,putting away
sluggishness and drowsiness, possessed of wisdom and
understanding, and leaving all doubt, uncertainty, and
questioning, purifies his mind, and rej oices . Like a S ickman who gains health, he rejoices ; or a merchant who
gains wealth, or a prisoner who gains liberty, or a slave
who gains freedom,or a traveller along a dangerous road
who gains a place of safety. Thus rej oicing, he is refreshed
in body ; he has comfort and his mind is composed. But
he retains witarka, reasoning, and wichéra, investigation .
This rej oicing is diffused through his whole body, as the
wi nd entirely fills the bag that contains it, or as the oil in
Maha Padana Suttanta. Jatakattha-kattha .
18 0 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
which cotton has been dipped pervades every part ; itcomes in contact wi th his organised frame on all sides ;there is no part of his body that does not feel it . Like anattendant who takes a metal vessel, in which he puts some
of the powder used when bathing, and then mixes water
with it, as much as is required, working them together,within and without, until the blending is complete so
does this rej oicing permeate through the whole body,and
is difliused throughout every part .
In the second dhyz’
tna, the priest has put away and
overcome reasoning and investigation, and attained to
clearness and fixedness of thought, so that his mind is con
centrated on one object, and he has rej oicing and gladness .
There is no part of him that does not enj oy the pleasant
result ; as a deep lake into which no river flows,no rain
falls,and no water springs up from beneath, is filled and
pervaded in every part by the water, and is free from
agitation .
In the third dhyana there is no rej oicing,no gladness,
and no sorrow ; but there is upékkha, tranquillity, which
is diffused through every part of his body,like the water
that nourishes the lotus,pervading every part
, and passing
from the root to the petals, so that it is saturated with
water throughout its whole tex ture .
In the fourth dhyana,reasoning, investigation, j oy, and
sorrow ,are overcome
,and he attains to freedom from
attachment to sensuous obj ects, and has purity and en
lightenment of mind . These envelope him, as a man
when he is covered by a white cloth from head to foot,leaving no part of his person exposed .
182 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
evils and ignorances and he knows who are firm or fixed,and who are unstable . This knowledge extends both tothe rupa and arr
'
Ipa worlds, the worlds in which there is
body and in which there is not,and it obtains as to those
who are about to enter nirw e’rna, and are rabats . AS a
youth fond of pleasure,when he looks into a mirror, or
still water,learns therefrom all about his face and appear
ance,so the priest can distinguish the thoughts of others
of whatever kind .
4 . By directing his mind to the remembrance of former
births, he sees one, two, a hundred, a thousand, ten
thousand, and many kalpas, of existences ; and thinks—Ihave been there
,in such a place ; and my name, family,
colour, food, and circumstances, were of such a kind ; I
went from this place, and was born in that place—tracingthe manner of his existence from one birth to another
,and
from one locality to another . As a man who has business
in another village goes there,and on his return remembers,
I stood there,and I sat there there I spoke
,and there I
was S ilent in the same way a man remembers his former
births, whether one thousand or ten thousand .
5 . By directing his mind to the attainment of chakkhu
passané-
gnye’
rna, or divine vision,
he sees sentient beings
as they pass from one state of existence to another,and
the position in which they are born, whether they are
mean or noble, ill favoured or good looking . He sees that
others,on account of errors they have embraced, or prope
gated,are born in hell, and that others again, on account
of their merit and truthfulness, are born in some heavenly
world. AS a man with good sight, from the upper story
MYSTIC POWERS . 183
of his house,sees the people in the street ; some entering
the dwelling and some coming out, and others riding in
vehicles of different descriptions ; so the priest sees the
circumstances of other beings in all worlds .
6 . By directing his mind to the four kinds of evil, viz .,
anger,a desire for existence, ignorance, and scepticism ;
he knows that this is sorrow, this the cause of sorrow, this
the cessation of sorrow,and this the cause of the cessation
of sorrow ; and again, that this is evil, thi s the cause of
evil,this the cessation of evil, and this the cause of the
cessation of evil . His mind is free from the four kinds of
evil . He knows, I have overcome the repetition of ex
istence ; I have completed my Observance of the precepts ;that which is proper to be done, I have done ; there is
nothing further to which I have to attend ; my work is
completed and ended . As a man who stands by the sideof a lake
,when the water is clear and still
,sees under the
surface di fferent kinds of shells, stones, potsherds, and
fishes, some in motion and some at rest, and thinks, Here
are Shells, here are stones, here are potsherds, and here are
fishes so the priest knows, I have overcome the repetition
of existence ; all that I have to do, is done .
The above paragraphs are taken from the Suttanta called
Samanya Phala, or the advantages of the priesthood. It
is said of each observance, that it is good and p rofitable,but the last is declared to be the most excellent of all ; ithas nothing higher, no superior .
Here I pause ; and I ask myself, in bitterness of soul,Is this all ? With all his reputed wisdom
,can Buddha
lead his followers to nothing higher,nothing superior ?”
184 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
After a sentient being has existed more myriads of years
than tongue can utter, and throughout the whole of this
period, from the commencement of his existence until its
las t stage, been subject to birth,decay
,sorrow
,weeping,
grief, discontent, and vexation,” according to the teaching
of the patichcha samuppada, has Buddhism nothing better
to present to him than that which is seen in the extract I
have made from the Semanva Phala Suttanta What isit ? It is first
,a rej oicing. But in what way IS it
from thoughts that fill the soul with their grandeurand magnificence
,pouring within it, from a thousand
origins,stream upon stream of the glorious imagina
tions that enable man to revel in the free exerciseof intellectual power, as he seeks to grasp all presentknowledge
,or exults before the radiant visions of eternity ?
There is no soul about it at all, whether in reality orfigure . It is just a sensation of the body ; as when the
nose smells the perfume, or the tongue tastes the pleasant
flavour,or the skin is shampooed by the soft hand ; and
with far leSS of the great and grand about it than when
the eye looks upon the beautiful vision,or the ear listens
to harmonious sounds . There is an effort to take from
man all that is nOble in his heritage, and make him low er
than the lowest creature that moves with no more vitality
about him than there is in the nidikumba sensitive plant,in the last moment of its drooping, when all its leaves
are folded,and it lies in weakness, having life yet within
it,but not apparent . What real benefit would there be in
the power to multiply forms and appearances ? Were ittrue that the priest, by the aid of irdhi, could listen to all
186 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord, andby whose atonement upon the cross there is now offered to
every one who,through faith, will accept it, a
“ j oy un
speakable, and full of glory,” and “ to them who by
patient endurance in well doing seek for glory and honour
and immortality,ETERNAL LIFE .
”
CHAPTER IV.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BUDDHISM .
1 . GOTAMA BUDDHA.
IN the preceding pages,I have spoken of Buddha as a
real personage ; I have attributed to an individual words
and acts,and have regarded the words and acts re
corded in the Pitakas as said and done by that indi
vidual ; but in this I have used the language of the
Buddhist, and not that of my own conviction or belief. I
will not say that I think no such person as Sakya Singha
ever existed ; but I affirm that we cannot know anything
about him with certainty ; and that, as it is not possible to
separate the myth from the truth, we cannot rely implicitly
on any one statement that is made in relation to him,
either in the Text or Commentary . There is doubt as to
his birth-place, his race, and the age in which he lived ;and in a still greater degree
,about almost every other
event connected with his history . There are a few things
said about him that we might believe, because they are
such as are common to man but even upon these we
cannot look without suspicion,from the overcrowding of
the page that records them with the most glaring
untruths ; and whether Gétama, prince and philosopher,ever existed or not
,we are qui te certain that the GOtama
188 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
Buddha of the Pitakas is an imaginary being, and neverdi d exist.
2 . THE LEGENDS OF BUDDHA AND MAHOMET
COMPARED.
It will be said,
“ How do you account, then, for the
production of these works , if the sage whose teachings
they profess to contain, and whose miraculous power they
set forth,never did teach these doctrines
,and never did
perform these supernatural deeds ?” In answering this
question,there may be an apparent difficulty ; but it is
not real . The fables invented by the Buddhists have had
their counterpart in other ages, and among other people .
There are the P ura'rnas and other works of the Brahmans,and the Zend Avesta of the Parsees, abound ing with ex
aggerations almost equally extravagant . The Talmuds
of the Jews are of a Similar character . In classic history,
without mentioning the innumerable myths about imagi
nary heroes and gods,we have Pythagoras of Samos,
Apolloniu s of Tyana,Apuleius the African
,and Me
lampus of Argos, who may have been real personages,but have become mythical through the miracu lou s endowments that are attribu ted to them, and the tales that have
been invented about their knowledge and power . In fact,
wherever the word of God is unknown, or it is regarded
as a sealed book to be read only by the priest,all classes
and races have formed for themselves, like the Buddhists,a mythology, with a host of imaginary beings, whom they
have invested with prodigious strength, unbounded wisdom,
or unearthly purity .
190 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
Buddha before his birth, so the mother of Mahometsuffered no inconvenience from the treasure with which
she was entrusted . As Buddha stepped upon the ground
immediately after his birth, and proclaimed his dignity
with a loud voice ; so, at the instant Mahomet was born,he prostrated himself on the ground and recited the creed .
AS Brahma and Sekra were in attendance at the birth
of Buddha,and to wash and refresh the mother and child
“ tw o streams of water were sent by the déwas so three
angels,brighter than the sun,
” appeared from heaven to
welcome the prophet, and they afterwards washed him
seven times . The whole sakwala was enlightened at the
birth of the son of Maya, and the streets and palaces ofBoska
,about sixty miles from the Jordan, were illuminated
at the birth of the son of Amina . Each of the mothershad only one child . As the rishi Keladéwala examined the
person of the young prince, to see whether the Signs of
Buddhaship were to be found, and when he saw them de
clared his future exaltation ; so the monk Bahira examined
the body of Mahomet to discover the seal of prophesy ; and
seeing it plainly impressed upon his back, he referred to
the sacred books, and finding all the marks to correspond,
declared the boy to be the expected apostle . AS no one
could measure the height of Buddha, because however
extended the instrument by which they tried to measure
him,he was higher still ; so, when Mahomet was weighed
bv the angels against a thousand of his people, “ he out
weighed them all . ” As Buddha was protected from the
storm by the extended hood of the néga Muchalinda ; so
Mahomet was shaded by the angels during the heat of the
THE PITAKAS . 191
day, and at other times was screened from the sun by
a cloud, “ moving as he moved,and stopping as he
stopped.
”As Buddha, at three steps, went to the heaven
of Sekra ; so Mahomet, mounted on the horse Borak,in the tenth part of a night
,passed beyond the third
heaven, and approached within two bow -Shots of the
eternal throne ." We thus learn,that tradition soon
invests with impossible endowments those whom it delights
to honour ; and that in the legends that are connected
with religions widely different from each other,there is
sometimes a great similarity as to character and extrava
gance .‘
3. THE PITAKAS .
Nearly the whole of the Mohammedan legends I haveenumerated, were the growth of about two hundred years
but more than tw ice that number O f years elapsed between
the death of Buddha and the period when the Pitakas are
said to have been commi tted to writing. In this long
interval there would be time for the invention of the wonderful tales that are contained in the sacred books . Ofthe rapid increase of these legends we have an instance on
record,as
,though only one hundred years elapsed between
the visit of Fa Hian to Indi a and that of Soung yun, “ in
the interval the absurd tradi tions respecting Sakya Muni’s
life and actions would appear to have been infinitelv
multiplied,enlarged
,and distorted . I have already
expressed my doubts as to the truth of the statements
Muir’s Life of Mahomet, passim.
1~ Lieut .-Colonel Sykes : Notes on the Religious, Moral, and Poli tical S tate
of Ancient India—Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, No . xii . 280 .
192 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
given by the historians of Ceylon , both in reference to themode in which the Pitakas are said to have been written
by the priest, and the time in which they were written .
There were books in existence , regarded by the Buddhistsas of authority
,before B . C . 90 . It was the Opinion of
Turnour that there were records in the island previous to
the writing of the Pitakas at the Alu wihara,and that
the concealment of the record till the reign of the Cey
lonese ruler, Wattagamini , between B . C . 101 and 76, was
a part of the esoteric scheme of that (Buddh ist) creed, had
recourse to in order to keep up the impression as to the
priesthood being endowed with the gift of
By inspiration is meant rahatship. This power is not
ascribed to the writers of the Pitakas in the Mahawanso,
but we meet with it in the Sera Sangaha “ After the
nirw e’
rna of Buddha, for the space of 450 years, the Text
and Commentaries, and all the words of the Tathagato,were preserved and transmitted by wise priests
,orally,
mukha-pathena . But having seen the evils attendant
upon this mode of transmission, five hundred and fifty
rabats,of great authority, in the cave called AlOka (Alu )
in the province of Malaya, in Lenka, under the guardian
ship of the chief of that province, caus ed the (sacred) books
to be written .
”
been held in the reign of Aséka,B . C . 307, and inscriptions
are still found in many parts of India that were cut in his
The third convocation is said to have
reign . Now we can scarcely think that if the art ofwriting was commonly practised in that age, and for
Buddhist purposes,the same medium would not be used
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal , vol . vrr. 722.
194 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
a formidable character. My Buddhist friends will saythat I am entirely overlooking the fact that there were
rabats in those days . But this I cannot believe,because
the Greeks had then begun to hold intercourse with thevery city whence Mabindo came and if men with powers
like those attributed to the rabats had existed, they would,doubtless
,have made it known to their countrymen
,along
with the other wonders they told them about India . Therecollective faculty was cultivated to its utmost perfectionby the Arabian ; but though the Koran is trifling in sizewhen compared with the Pitakas
,Ke’rtih al Wackad i men
tions only four or five persons who could repeat the whole atthe time of Mahomet’s death and to make it credible that
the whole had been retained in his own mind, itwas fabledthat the angel Gabriel had with him an annual recitationof the entire
All analogy, all collateral facts that we can bring tobear upon the question
,forbid the receiving of the state
ment that the Pitakas were first written in the reign of
Wattagamini . We are told of “ sacred books” being
carried to China before this period . It may be said that
this invalidates an argument I have presented above, that
the number of the false traditions of Buddhism was mul
tiplied because of the length of the interval between the
death of the sage and the writing of the Dharmma. But
this obj ection is set aside by another fact, that wherever
we meet with books at an earlier period than the reign of
Wattagamini, the era of Buddha is carried backward
several hundred years beyond the date of his death, as
Muir’s Life of Mahomet, vol. i. p . 5 .
THE PITAKAS . 195
given by the Singhalese records . The Tibetan version of
the Pitakas is said to have been translated from works
compiled” at three different places,and we are told that
the Sutras in general “ were first written in the Sindhu
There are many evidences that the Com
mentaries were not written by Buddhaghéso in the exactform in which they are said to have come down to his age .
He tells us that he omits certain portions ; and in other
instances refers us for further information to theWisuddhiMargga. This is not the manner of a man who under
takes to translate a record,every sentence of which he
regards as divine ; as he would know that if some parts
were omitted, and others added, such a course would pre
vent his work from being acknowledged as an authoritativerule of faith and conduct . He also refers to Milinda
Panha, as explaining more fully certain subjects that he
introduces . In the Commentary on the Digha Nika’
tya he
says, that this Commentary, which is called Suman’
galaw ilasini, is made, kata, by the venerable one who is
named by his teachers, Buddhaghéso, whose knowledge of
the Pitakas and the Commentaries is unlimited (without
anything to obstruct The author of the Sara Sangha
says, that on one occasion he made a wrong statement,from carelessness or want of thought .” And if upon
one occasion, what certainty have we that it was not the
same in other instances
The names of the principal books in Tibetan agree with
those in Pali,but I can find no reference to any Commen
tary like that which is said to have been brought from
Csoma de Korosi : Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, vol. vi . p . 68 7.
196 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
Indi a by Mabindo. According to the opinion of the
Buddhists of Ceylon, and upon the principles they assume,
the Atuwawas, as we have seen, must be of equal authority
with the Text, and there is no possibility of evading this
conclusion . The same men who wrote the Atuwawas, in
the reign of Wattagamini, wrote the Text . The same
priest who brought the Text from India, brought also the
Atuwawas . Both the priests who wrote them,and the
priest who brought them, are regarded as being rahats,
and,therefore
,as unerring in their know lege of reli gious
truth . They were not inspired in the Christian sense of
the word,because there was no one to inspire them ; but
they had within themselves that which is equivalent toinspiration in other systems . The Buddhists of Ceylonhave thus welded the Text and the Commentary so firmly
together, that if one is proved to be in error, the otherloses its authority and as we have proved that the Com
mentary rests on no solid foundation, we are obliged to
put the Text in the same position of uncertainty and mis
trust. Independent of the absurdi ties and impossibilities
contained in the Commentaries, the common rules of oriti
cism would oblige us to declare this compilation to be of
little value as a record of facts, and of no authority as an
exponent of the system of Buddha as originally promul
gated by the sage himself, when he instituted the religion
known by his name .
There is this difference between a secular and sacred
record . From the former we may cull what we suppose
to be correct,and rej ect the rest, without denying the
general authority of the author, as he presents himself
198 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
ligion, and must be rej ected as a guide to salvation or to
heaven .
4 . THE SOURCE OF BUDDHA’S REVELATIONS .
Among the most singular of the claims put forth inbehalf of Buddha, we may name the assertion, that though
he taught the same doctrines that former Buddhas had
done, all his revelations were the result of his own personaldiscovery
,by means of intuition, entirely apart from ex
perience, without any instruction from another, and with
out any aid from tradition, or from any other of the
sources by which knowledge is generally communicated to
man . In the interval between one Buddha and another,
not only does the religion of the preceding Buddhasbecome extinct, but the recollection and record of all preceding events are also In the first sermon preached
by Buddha at Benares, he says, Within me, priests, forthe attainment of these previously unknown doctrines, the
(divine) ey e was developed, knowledge was developed,wisdom was developed
,perception was developed
,light
was developed.
” But the claim to exclusive clearness ofperception, and extent of knowledge, put forth by Buddha,is inconsistent with the power be attributed to the rishis .
In the twelve kalpas previous to Gotama, twenty-fourBuddhas appeared, and the doctrines of all former Buddhas
are the same as those of Gotama, though not always de
veloped to the same extent. Then, if Kaladéwala,and
other rishis,could see backward forty kalpas, why were
they not as able to tell the doctrines of former Buddhas
Turnout, Mahawanso, xxviii .
THE SOURCE or BuDDHA’s REVELATIONS . 199
as Gotama himself ? If the tirttaka unbelievers could seethe past in the manner that Buddha affirms, how could
any of them Oppose him, when, from the power to see back
ward forty kalpas,they must have known that their pre
decessors were in error ? And if these men, who could
receive no aid from Buddha, because they were the pro
moters of another system,could see the past, and learn all
about it, where was the necessity for Buddha, through
numberless births,to seek the attainment of the Buddha
ship, in order that he might teachmen the way to nirwana,
when others, according to his own principles, were able to
learn all that was required to be known, in order to securethe same consummation Buddha must be wrong, on
one side or the other ; either when he says that his doc
trines were previously unknown,’
or when he says that
his opponents could see backward forty kalpas .”
There are other fac ts that lead us to question the truthof Buddha’s statement, as to men
’s entire ignorance of the
existence and doctrines of the former Buddhas . He tellsus that the Vedas were given in the time of Kasyapa
Buddha . When I ask how all knowledge of the former
Buddhas was lost, if the Vedas then given were still inexistence, though corrupted, I am told that the oblivion ofthe past extends only tomatters c onnected with Buddhism ;which reply is too unsatisfactory to be received. But there
are other events that tend to shake our faith in this state
ment, unless the knowledge that so extensively prevailedof former Buddhas was the consequence of his own revela
tions, which it would be di fficult to prove, as the Pitakas
give no sanction to such a conj ec ture. FaHian tells us,
200 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES on THE BUDDHISTS .
in reference to the hill Kakutapéda : It is here that the
great Kia she (Kasyapa Buddha) is actually present . He
perforated the foot of the hill that he might enter it, and
prevented any other from entering in the same way . At
a considerable distance thence,there is a lateral opening,
in which is the entire body of Kia she The Tao kiao of
all kingdoms and countries come here annually to adoreKia she .” The Chinese have this formula Namo
Buddhava. Namo Dhammaya. Namo Sangaya . NamoKasyapaya. Om "Hara, hara, hara . Ho, he, he . NamoKasyapaya. Arbate . Samyak
-Sambuddhaya.
” In the
Journals of Fa Hian the references to Kasyapa are sofrequent, as to lead to the conclusion that in the age inwhich he visited India
,this Buddha was regarded with
much and widely-extended reverence . In the temple atSanchi
,there is an inscription which records that a female
devotee caused money to be given for the lamps of the
four Buddhas .” It is,therefore
,probable that much more
was known of the former Buddhas in the time of Gotamathan is acknowledged by the Pitakas of the Singhalese,who worship no Buddha but the last . That there wereever any beings in existence with endowments similar to
those attributed to the Buddhas,I must again deny, from
the arguments I have previously advanced but there mayhave been religious teachers, sages, or philosophers, whosesystem was embraced and extended by the son of Maya .
In some instances honours were paid to these former
Buddhas that were denied to Gotama . Fa Hian saysThiao tha (Déwadatta) has sectaries who still subsist ;these honour the three Foes (Buddhas) of the past time ;
202 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
and restless thinkers appear,sometimes for the world’s
weal and sometimes for its hurt,contending with each
o ther in the arena of debate,with all the eagerness of the
warrior on the field of battle, when the destiny of empires
is at stake . But at such times the masses of the peopleare perplexed by the contests and contradictions of rivalsystems ; and though interested for a time by the war of
words, they are soon wearied, and long for repose . Theboldest pretender has then the best chance of securing theirregard ; and when once their confidence has been gained,they follow their leader with enthusiasm,
as the watch
words of a party save them from the trouble of searchingafter truth . The doctrines ascribed to Buddha were
popular in their character, and well designed to secure theattention of all . They were just what men like to listento ; as they were invited thereby to take refuge in some
thing that promi sed to be a protection, yet requiring littlemore than the repetition of a form to secure its privileges .
The rules were defini te, the keeping of them was not irk
some,and the reward promised to the obedient was ample .
It was enough to secure high recompence, if its votaries
gave alms and rendered homage to Bhagawaduring his
lifetime,or to his representatives when he was dead ; for
though these things would not secure nirwana, they would
ensure an admittance to the sensuous pleasures of a dewa
loka,which to many minds would be much more desirable
than the extinction of being.
Of the manner in which Buddhism gained its holdon countries away from India we know too little to beable to speak with certainty. Whatever might be its
BUDDHISM IN INDIA . 208
moral superiority when first brought in contact with othersystems, that advantage was not retained. The character
given by travellers of the priests in China is,that they are
“ low,” “ stupid and unintellectual
,
” “ wretched specimens
of humanity,” and that many of them are fugitives
, out
laws, and bandi ts, who have been driven by want or fearto seek an asylum in the temples . Of the priests who wearthe yellow robe ‘ in other countries a similar character is
given—they are said to be idle, ignorant, untruthful andwithout respect .
In all c ountries,the honour s claimed by the priesthood
have won many to its ranks . In the course of time they
were carried out to so great an extent, that the mendicant
sramanas succeeded in placing the members of their Sangha
in a higher position than even the Brahman himself seeksto secure . In the one instance there is pride of caste ; in
the other, pride of office ; but the principle is the samein both instances . The priesthood (as we call the offi ce,from the want of a better name) , was at first open to nearly
all, whether men or women . The man who had been a
slave,if set free by his master
,might receive admission ;
and when once the yellow robe was around him,he could
claim the reverence of kings . Even higher honours thanthis were gained
,when the use of the tun-sarana, the
threefold protective formula,was established , as the poor
mi sguided worshipper was led to say, “ I take refuge in
the priesthood .
”And when the discourse called Ratana
was composed,now read as part of the Pirit, the priests
proceeded to a still more daring usurpation, and made the
ruler of the déwa-léka Tawutisasay, Ye demons who are
204 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
here assembled, celestial or terrestial, we adore the associated priesthood, the Tathagato, worshipped by gods andmen . May there be prosperity .
” They thus represent
themselves, not only as being higher than the gods, but asbeing on an equality with the supreme Buddha
,and as
receiving an equality of worship . In the Khanda Pirit
the following words are attributed to Buddha . “ Infinite
(in excellence) is Buddha ; infini te his doctrines ; infinite
his priesthood.
” It was in consistency with these teachings,
that when bishop Heber asked a priest,in Kandy, if
he worshipped the gods , he replied,
“ No the gods
worship me .”
From its commencement, notwithstanding the advan
tages it oflered , and the gentleness of its professions,Buddh ism met with numerous opponents . It is by no
means certain that it was ever the religion of India
generally, though at one time its monuments might beeveryw here seen
,and its formularies everywhere proclaimed .
The worship of fire,the system of the earlier Vedas, seems
to have prevailed to a greater extent than any other faith
in the time of Gotama. With this, the Spirit of asceticism
exercised an almost equal,and an increasing influence .
Had Buddhism been left to work its own way, according
to its own principles, it might have flourished among the
Hindus at the present day,as one of their many forms of
religion . But in the gathering together of the armies,and the fierce contentions of the kings
,at the burning of
Buddha’s body, we have a key to much of its subsequent
history. It was used as a political instrument. The kingsallied themselves to Buddhism, to save their race from the
206 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
Buddha has not now a single worshipper . Even in thetime of Fa Hian, Kapila-wattu was one vast solitude,without either king or people
,and the roads were infested
by elephants and lions . The minister of the powerful
Akbar,in the sixteenth century, could find no one in the
wide dominions of his master who could give him any
explanation of the doctrines of Gotamafi‘
6 . ANOMALIES .
It would be unfair to Buddhism, were I to allow thesupposition to go forth, that I regard the present work as
containing anything like a complete exposition of thesystem ; though it so happens that nearly all its leading
principles have come under our review,from the whole of
them being founded in error . I am here a controversialist,
and not an expositor : but I may express my conviction,
that little more is to be learnt about its principia from the
numerous works written by its disciples . Its leading facts
and most important doctrines are now known ; and when
our expositions of the system are confirmed,there will be
little to reward further research . But in the development
of its character and tendency,its bearing upon the interests
of mankind, and the place it holds among the agencies that
have exerted an extensive influence in the east,there is a
4“ “ Madhava a writer of the fourteenth century, place s the Buddhas nonearer than in Cashmir, and Abufaz l declares that he never had metwith afollower of Buddha in H industan, and had only encountered some old menof that faith in his third visit t o Cashmir. Later periods are out of thequestion, for in the present day I never heard of a pa w n who had metwithnatives of India proper of this faith , and it does appear that an u tter exti rpatiou of the Buddha religion in India was effected between the twelfth andsixteenth centuries .”—Professor lVilson.
ANOMALIES . 207
vast field for cultivation, and a harves t of admonitory instru ction for future generations . I have proved that
Buddhism is not a revelation of truth, that its founder
was an erring and imperfect teacher, and ignorant of many
things that are now almost universally known ; and that
the claim to the exercise of omniscience made for him by
hi s followers is an imposition and pretence . These con
elusions I have founded upon statements taken from the
sacred writings . Were it possible to form a true history
of the rise and progress of Buddhism,it would be a record
of great value . But this can never be, as the attempt to
accomplish it,with the documents now in existence
,would
be like the search for a portion of the water of the Gangesin the southern extremity of the Indi an ocean . We can
now only regard Buddha as an impostor whereas, if we
could learn the truth, it might have changed our censureinto respect . We might have seen the struggles of a mind
honestly, though unsuccessfully, contending with evil, and
have been led to invest his name with honours equal tothose given to other sages and moralists . If the compilersof the Pitakas had had the magnanimity of the followers
of Mahomet,and rej ected from the canon all spurious
traditions, it would have been a great boon to the realinterests of Buddhism. The inconsistencies and mistakes
with which it is now charged, and the most apparent of
its defects,may be the result of misconception and mi s
representation on the part of the exponents of the original
system, as propounded by Sakya Singha . It now presents
various anomalies,a few of which I enumerate, that his
own words mi ght have explained. We can scarcely think
208 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
that one who set himself so strongly against the pretensionsof caste would render to it the greatest homage in his
power, by declaring that the Buddhas are alw ays bornof the two highest castes
,the Kshatriya or the Brahman .
There are evidences throughout the records of Buddhism,
of an awkward attempt to j oin together three opposite
systems ; that of the householder, the mendicant priest,and the hermit, or jungle-ascetic . The revels that take
place in the dewa-lokas, with the imperfections, grossness,and bad passions of their inhabitants, do not agree with the
renunciation of pleasure, or the freedom from evil, repre
sented as necessary in those who seek the rewards of
religion . All idea of atonement by sacrifice,or of salvation
through the vicarious sufferings of another,is set at nought
and rej ected, and yet the“ painful births” of B odhisat are
represented as being voluntarily endured to prepare himfor the reception of the Buddhaship, by which he was
enabled to guide men to “ the city of peace,
” nirwana .
Though B uddha is made to declare that there is no self,
nothing like a soul, that goes from one state of existence to
another, he says continually, speaking of existence in bygone ages, “ I was that person ; as in the Sussond iya
Jataka, when, in the gurulu (a fabulou s bird) birth , he
committed sin with the queen of Tambatada, and declares
expressly,after narrating the circumstances under which
the deed was done,
I am he that was a gurulu at that
time . ”
7 . DEFECTS .
Other defects may have been inherent in the originalsystem . The universal practice of two out of the five great
210 LEGENDS AND THEORIES on THE BUDDHISTS .
forlorn and frien’
dless,and needs a shield the most
,is
deserted in her exposed position,and is accounted as
having none of the rights of woman . About the plighting
of the troth between one man and one woman, till death
them d o part, Buddhism knows nothing . The morality of
the system has been praised ; but for what reason It is
sometimes said that it has ten commandments,very little
different from those of the Holy Scriptures . But is it so
In reality,there is no command at all . When a man or a
woman chooses,they can go to the temple, and say before
the priest, “ I take the ordinance not to approach one
and if no time be stated,when it is
taken, the obligation ceases, at the end of the poya day »
It is an absolute continence that is declared,and has li ttle
more relation to the seventh commandment of Sinai,than
of the other sex ;’
a vow to abstain from animal food for a day would have to
the command,Thou shalt do no murder.”
The five precepts may be regarded as among the
institutions of primitive Buddhi sm,ordained in the time
of its founders ; but I mu st confess that the more closely I
look into the system, the less respect I feel for the character
of its originators . That which at first sight appears to be
the real glory of Buddhism, its moral code, loses all its
distinction when minutely examined. Its seeming bright
ness is not that of the morning star,leading onward to
intenser radiance, but that of the meteor ; and not even
that for the meteor warns the traveller that the dangerou s
morass is near ; but Buddhism makes a fool of man by
promising to guide him to safety, whilst it leads him to
the very verge of the fatal precipice . We need not wonder
DEFECTS. 2 1 1
at the moral circumstances of the people who profess this
system. In many instances the door of evil is thrown
open by the record they take as their religious gu ide ,whilst they know nothing of the solemn thought implied
by the question, How can I do this great wickedness and
Sin against God
The result of a sincere reception of Buddhism,as its
purpose is presented in the Pitakas,is to reduce man to
the smallest minimum of vitality . The wisdom of sentient
existence is,to seek to become non-sentient and non
existent ; and as man does not possess an immortal soul,
it is possible for this to be effected. To prove the im
possibility of the existence of a soul,many a long and
weary conversation is recorded in the Abhidamma. All
thought is regarded as a material result . The operationof the mind is no different in mode to that of the eye
,or
ear ; vision is eye-touch, hearing is ear-touch, and thinking
is heart-touch . The man, as we have repeatedly seen,mere mass
,or cluster ; a name, and nothing more . He
who can reduce himself to a state most resembling a fish
when it lies torpid in the mud , or an animal when it
hibernates,is regarded as having attained to the most
exalted state of existence . The world next to nirwana,
in the order of privilege,is the fourth brahma-loka, where
the brahmas live maha kalpas,in a state neither
conscious nor unconscious ; like the infant‘that lies in its
cradle in a dim uncertainty of thought and feeling, partly
sensible,and partly senseless . O ur own fair world
,and all
its scenes of beauty,with all the sweetnesses of social
communion, are to be turned away from, and despised .
212 LEGENDS AND THEORIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
To act wisely in the highest degree,is to retire to the
wilderness, and shu t up all the senses, and get to be
so near nothing that whilst yet living there shall be a
universal paralysis of body and soul . The devotee has
then only to commit the suicide of immortali ty,and secure
non-existence, and he has reached the perfection of being,which is, not to be .
In such a system,there can be none of the activiti es of
benevolence . Words of kindness are whispered gently bythe lip, because this can be done without an effort to bepractically kind
,and such words are plentiful . In a
di scourse connected with the Pirit,the following sentences
are repeated : “ May every being experience happiness,peace, and mental enj oyment " Whatever sentient beingsmay exist, erratic or stationary ; or of whatever kind,long, or tall, or middle-sized ; or Short, or stout ; seen, or
unseen ; near, or remote ; born, or otherwise existing—may
every being be a mother protects her child,the child of her bosom ; so let immeasurable benevolence,prevail among all beings " Let unbounded kindness andbenevolence, prevail throughout the universe above, below,around, without partiality, anger, or enmity " Let thesedispositions be established in all who are awake, whether
standing, walking, sitting, or reclining ; this place is thus
constituted a holy residence Yet the priest who utters
these words knows that if he were to make any movement
whatever towards carrying the sentiments they express
into effect,he would thereby expose himself to ecclesiastical
censure . He blesses by words , and not by works . He is
an overflowing fountain of mercy, but receives back within
214 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES or THE BUDDHISTS .
personal profit, a traffic in merit, a venal process . In
addressing itself to the individual man,apart from its
honi ed words,it is a principle of selfishness ; and yet,
though this is its beginning,centre
,and end
,it seeks to
hide its selfishness by denying that there is any self. As
there is no infinite and all-worthy Being, to whose glory we
are called upon to live,when we commit evil the w rong is
done to ourselves,and not to another . There is no base
ness about it ; it is not an iniquity . Hence the im
possibility ofmaking the Buddhist feel that he is a sinner,when the attempt is made to bring the commandmenthome to his conscience . A native has been heard to say
that he never committed Sin since he was born , unless it
were in catching fish ; and some free themselves from the
consequences of this transgression,by saying that they
only take the fish out of the water,and they die of them
selves . The vilest profligacy may be committed without
offence,and may even become a virtue, as in the case of
the courtezan B indumati, if in its commission preference
be avoided,and the mind remain unmoved.
The supposed absence of a holy and ever present In
telligence from the universe, throws light on many of the
other institutions of Buddhism, and makes that possible
which would otherwise be too manifest an absurdity for it
ever to have been put in practice . I . The priest can
receive permission to put off his robe for a time, and break
the precept of continence, and be again admitted into
the Sangha, without the forfeiture of any privilege he
previously possessed . 2 . In former years, when the wor
shipper entered the temple, on taking upon himself the
DEFECTS . 21-3
obligations,he said, Ahan bhanté aj j a ito patthaya yawa
pahomitawa w isunw isq rakkhanatthaya pancha sikkhapadani samadiyami . To-day, my lord, I take the five
precepts,to obey them, severally, as far as I am able, from
this time forward . The strange clause, yawa pahomitawa,
as far as,or as long as
,I am able, has recently been
omitted, not from its incongruity with the system,but from
the evil consequences that followed from its recital . Its
use, at any time, reveals the absence of all power orauthority beyond the will of the devotee . 3 . There can
be no intelligent prayer in Buddhism, as there is no one to
listen to its voice . The people repeat the tun-sarana before
the image of Buddha .
Buddhan’ saranan'
gachchami I take refuge in BuddhaDhamman’ saranan'
gachehami I take refuge in the TruthSanghan’ saranan'
gachchami I take refuge in the Priesthood.
Once, twice, thrice, this is repeated. But the refuge of
Buddha can be of no avail,as he has ceased to be ; and as
well might men appeal to the light that once shone in the
festive hall of his summer palace, or the rainbow thatspanned his native city
,in the hour of the passing storm.
The Dharmma,the doctrines of Buddha, are equally with
out power. How can a sound, a law,a recitation, help any
one,by the exercise of its own influence, when it is itself
a mere abstraction,a name ? And as to the Sangha, the
associated Priesthood,I should like to ask any of my
readers who repeat the formula as an act of worship, in
what members of the Sangha it is that they seek refuge .
Not in the dead priests ; as some of them have becomeor fishes, and others have become nothing in nirwana .
216 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
It must be in some portion of the living priesthood . Then
I ask, Which ? IS it in those who are so frequently seen,as plaintiffs or defendants
,in our courts of justice ; or those
who are breaking the precept by adding land to land, and
by lending out money on usury ; or those whose stolid
countenances we see in the streets as they carry the alms
bowl ; or those who utter words of blasphemy against theirMaker and Judge
,and revile the servants of Christ,
forgetful of the advice of Buddha : Priests, if others
speak against me, or speak anything against my doctrines,or speak anything against the priesthood
,that is no reason
why you should be angry,discontented
,and displeased with
them, thereby bringing yourselves into danger
The want of reality in the system leads, as a necessary
consequence, to moral imbecility . Buddha acknowledges
that there are things excellent in other religions,and hence
he did not persecute . He declares that even his opponents
had a degree of wisdom,and exercised miraculou s power .
But this very indifference about error,as about every thing
else ; this apparent candour and catholicity ; is attended by
an influence too often fatal to the best interests of those bywhom it is professed . There can be little difference in the
mind of the Buddhist between truth and error, right and
wrong ; and from this source arises the apparent inability
ofmany persons in this island to see the essential difference
between Christianity and Buddhism, or to learn that to be
a Christian a man must regard Buddha as a false teacher
and his claim to supremacy as a sin against Almighty God .
Not in any other part of the earth, to the same extent, are
Brahma Jala Suttanta.
218 LEGENDS AND THEORIES OF THE BUDDHISTS .
happiness, no plenitude of enj oyment, no perfect unbroken
peace, in the possession of any being whatever, from the
highest to the lowest,in any world . It tells me that I
may live myriads of millions of ages , and that not in any
of these ages, nor in any portion of an age , can I be free
from apprehension as to the future, until I attain to a state
of unconsciousness ; and that in order to arrive at this
consummation I must turn away from all that is pleasant,
or lovely,or instructive, or elevating, or sublime . It tells
me,by voices ever-repeated, like the ceaseless sound of the
sea-wave on the Shore, that I shall be subj ect to “ sorrow,
impermanence,and unreality,
” so long as I exist,and yet
that I cannot now cease to exist, nor for countless ages to
come,as I can only attain nirwana in the time of a supreme
Buddha . In my distress, I ask for the sympathy and
guidance of an all-wise and all-powerful Friend, who canbe touched with the feeling of my infirmities, soothing me
with words of solace, and permitting me to come to him in
my darkness,and perplexity, and cast my care upon Him,
as the troubled child casts its care upon a mother’s love ,and is then at sweet rest . But I am mocked
,instead, by
the semblance of relief ; and am told to look to Buddha,who has ceased to exist ; to the Dharmma
,that never was
an existence ; and to the Sangha, the members of which
are real existences, but like myself, partakers of sorrow
and sin .
Of late years there have been evidences of a growingdisposition to receive as truth only the words spoken by
Buddha,and to rej ect all comments, glosses , and explana
tions,or to regard them as of less authority . But the
DEFECTS . 219
Buddhist has no other assurance that the words attributed
to the Tathagato were actually spoken by him, besides that
which he receives from the Pitakas . Why should thesebooks
,which profess to have been transmitted from nu
erring rabats,be less trustworthy when they speak about
other matters than when they profess to give the words of
Buddha,as their authors had in both instances the same
Opportunity of knowing the truth or untruth of the state
ments they record ? The warrant for receiving the comment
is j ust the same as that for receiving the word ; and the
common principles that guide us when placing our trust in
evidence,oblige us to receive both word and comment with
equal confidence, or to rej ect both w ith equal incredulity,when they come to u S with the same au thority, and when
both profess to be revealed truth, whether that revelation
be from an inner and personal light,or from the inspiration
of some other being. The principles of the eclectic cannot
be applied to an inspired record . The very moment we
begin to choose one portion rather than another,we set
aside its sovereign au thority, and reduce it to the same
level as any other work . When we ask the Buddhist why
he believes certain words to have been ‘ spoken by Bhagawa,he says, Because the Pitakas declare it . We then reply,By rej ecting other parts of the Pitakas as being unworthy
of credence, and yet founding upon them,and upon them
alone, your trust in the words they ascribe to Buddha, you
do that which no wise worshipper would do, and what you
have no liberty to do as a man guided by the requirementsof reason .
I have thus endeavoured,fairly and faithfully
,to set
220 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
forth the errors of Buddhism,as we learn them from its
sacred books . The moral character of the system, as I
have presented it,is almost uniformly reflected in the
conduct of the inhabitants of the island who are gu ided
by its precepts . Too commonly, among its adherents, a
high sense of honour is wanting ; there is no resolute upo
standing for truth,no willingness to suffer rather than to
sin . There may be exceptions, but I have not met with
them, in my intercourse with persons of this creed . Fewthings surprise the newly-arrived European so mu ch as to
find so entire an absence of truthfulness in men who seem
otherwise to be respectable . There is the appearance of
all that is honest,and trustworthy ; in conversation, the
bated breath,and every token of respect for the person
addressed ; a complacent smile, never intermitted ; a willing
assent to every proposition promises falling fast from the
lip, like flowers of the araliya tree at early dawn ; and at
parting a ready re-iteration of all that has been promised,and a renewed and more positive declaration that every
command shall be obeyed . But as to the fulfilment, weary
will be the eye that watches for its coming, and long empty
the hand that expects from this source to be filled . How
can it be otherwise,if no higher motive for integrity than
that which Buddhism presents is found within the heart
But in the circle where Christian influence extends,even
though there may not be the profession of scriptural faith ,I can mark a great improvement in honesty and truthful
ness,since I first stepped upon these shores as a youth .
The belief in a soul is, perhaps, general among the
Singhalese, though so contrary to the teaching of Buddha .
222 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHI STS .
prominent errors of Buddhism. At some personal incon
venience, at the cost of severance from children whom I
love as my own soul, I have again visited this island, that
I may give to the Society to which it is my privilege to
belong, the benefit of my acquaintance with the principal
race here resident,and of my matured experience as to its
interests and wants . The friends of my you th, the brave
men whose zeal I tried to imitate when I saw them strong
in faith amidst the Shouts of the battle-field—where arethey ? I know where . Not in a nirwana of nothingness ;not amidst the uncertainties of a repetition of existence ;but with God . I Shall see them again ; and we shall no
longer have to toil together,but to triumph ; through the
one sacrifice made for all Sinners . By the memory of theseservants of Christ—for many loved them as well as myself-I ask of all those who shall read, and can understand,the sentences I now write
,to give me their further atten
tion,whilst I seek to express to them the yearnings of my
soul,and to bare before them the throbbings of an anxious
heart . I will no longer Speak as to an impersonality,but
suppose that I am standing before you,as an old acquaint
ance ; and that under the shade of one of your own palm
groves,or by the perfume of your na trees, we are talking
over the story of days that to you ,as well as myself
,were
days of high resolve and bright hope .
Then,my friends, I will not insult you by asking if you
believe in the statements of Buddha and his d isciples, the
fallacy of which I have endeavoured to expose . I know
that you do not ; you cannot . But if this is your position,it involves consequences that are of an importance over
CONCLUSION . 223
which you will do well most seriously to ponder . There is
truth among the children of men—absolute,saving, en
nobling and divine . Have you embraced this truth ? and
has it brought to you all that it professes to impart, in the
promises of the word of God IS there that difference in
your peace of mind,as to the present, and in your assurance
of safety,as to the fu ture
,that gives a surer testimony of
the divinity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, than can belearnt from books, or taught by man I lament, that as
to many of you—though you are indebted for nearly all
you know to the minister of God, and have listened to hisprayers
,as again and again he has poured out his heart
before the throne of the heavenly grace in you r behalf
you have been no more influenced by the saving power of
Christianity,than if you had lived in some distant age
,
and had learnt your hod iya at the pansala of Mabindo, or
fought in the wars of Prakrama Bahu.
Now, no placid smile, if you please, in commendation of
Christianity, whilst in your inner soul you disavow all that
you say or seem. There must be no trifling in the presence
of the all-seeing God,around whose throne is the terrible
thunder . If there be, indeed, a revelation from above, a
Gospel, a Redeemer, a Holy Spirit, a Father in heaven, thedanger that awaits you
,if you wilfully neglect the truth,
or deliberately rej ect it,must be more appalling than all
the horrors that are told of Aw ichi, for it will be ever
lasting. If themighty Lord of all could not, in consistencewith his attribute of ju stice
,save man without an atone
ment, neither will he saveyou, if you reject that atonement .
I feel for you ; I sympathise with you ; I know somethi ng
224 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
of the difficul ties with which you have to contend . Formany generations your forefathers have been taught to
regard the sacrifice of blood with aversion,as a thing
impure in itself, and as the root of all evil ; and whilst
these thoughts are cherished,or the remembrance of them
retained, there can be no sincere trust in the expiation
wrought out for man upon the cross ; though it is by this
alone that we can be saved from God’s wrath and eternal
perdition . When the flower and the fruit are thought to
be an adequate offering, as an expression of religious
thought and feeling,there can be no right appreciation of
the vileness of sin, or of man’s need of an all-worthy
Substitu tion . We can only learn this from the saddest of
all Sights, the outpouring of the life’s blood ; but that which
is the saddest of all Sights in itself, is the most cheering of
all in its character as a symbol, as it tells of the ransom
price,
“ not without blood,
” paid for us men and for our
salvation ; when Christ Jesus,“ the everlasting Son of the
Father,
” in the infinitude of his mercy,and of his own
free will, became“ the propitiation for our Sins ; and not
for ours only,but also for the S ins of the whole world .
”
This one sentence is more cheering than all the revelations
of Buddhism, whether uttered by Bhagawaor rahat .
There is another barrier to your reception of Christianity
the indifference of many of my own countrymen to the
duties that are insisted on as essential to a meetness for
heaven . But I wish to impress upon your minds, that no
man is a Christian,in the sight of God, because of his
birth,or name
,or profession
,or rank, or society, or church,
or nation or because of anything that he himself can do,
226 LEGENDS AND THEO RIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
not be overlooked with impunity . The spread of Christianity, nationally, has been,
in most instances,through the
instrumentality of the higher classes , whilst its power and
vitality have been best presented amongst the poor . To
you light has come, whilst the masses around you are still
involved in darkness and error . It is not enough that you
yourselves embrace the tru th . It is incumbent upon you ,
as a momentous and paramount obligation,to seek to bring
this island,and all its people, into the only fold , under the
one Shepherd . But how few there are, among you all,away from the paid agents of the church , that are seeking ,with their whole souls
,to save their countrymen from the
wreck of eternal ruin . Whose are the names, among thosewho within the last fifty years have been making a profession of Christianity
,that will go down to future ages as
prominent in seeking to set aside the errors of Buddhism,
and convert men’s souls to God ? There is a glorious workbefore you ,
if you will set about its accompli shment in
sincerity and earnestness ; but it will be a sad account you
will have to give,if
,in the day of judgment, Jesus Christ
shall have to say to you ,impersonating those whom he has
redeemed, I was ignorant, and ye taught me not.
” It is
not enough that you be baptised , or have you r name in
some church registry, and occasionally attend the hou se of
God . Religion must be made the work of you r life ; it
must enter into everything ; and it mu st be seen by your
children,and servants
,and neighbours, that you r heart is
not here, but in heaven . The power to do all this cannot
be gained by your having learnt some catechism at school,or by your having read the Scriptures as a lesson when a
CONCLUSION. 227
youth . To teach you further, to aid you in your contest
with evil,to save you from the pollution and power of sin,
to bring you into happy communion with God, there mustbe a constancy of attention to
“ the means of grace and
your religion must be a labour, a devotion, a sacrifice, never
neglected and never intermitted .
The work of missions in this land has not been a failure ;among the poor and the suffering there have been seen the
sweetness, the power, and the j oyousness of religion, as
these were known in the primitive church and now ,among
the seraphim in heaven,there are many with the dazzling
diadem upon the brow, who learnt, in some humble school,or mud-walled chapel, or unpretending church, the word of
reconciliatian,and embraced the offer of mercy made to
them in the name of Christ . But among those to whom
we once looked forward, because of the superiority of the
advantages they have possessed, as the heralds of the cross
to their countrymen, as those who were to take Christianity
into their households, and beseech the throne of God inearnest supplication, until their every relative and servant
has been converted from the error of their way,there has
been severe disappointment . In the exhibition of generous
and elevated sentiment, in the successful pursuit of ac
quirements and accomplishments of a high order, there has
been,of late years, a marked improvement. The names of
some of you, among which we may specially mention that
of the learned editor and translator of the Sidath Sangar
awa,are heard in the halls of science and literature along
with those borne by men of world-wide reputation . The
author of Wiswapriya, by his invaluable publications, has
228 LEGENDS AND THEORIES O F THE BUDDHISTS .
shewn that there are among you able and accomplished
controversialists . There are others who, as extensive
cultivators, as j udges upon the bench, or as rulers of korlas ,have exhibited an integrity and uprightness that were
formerly unknown in the land. But the church wants to
see more of the spirit that fired the soul of the apostle
Paul,when he said
,God forbid that I Should glory, save
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world
is crucified to me and I unto the world . There are many
of you,especially among the more aged
,who have had
other adverse influences to contend with,that are now
passing away . Your ayahs,you r sisters
,and your mothers
,
were all heathen and home authority is the most powerful
of all modes of mastery . It is hard to have to say that
Buddha was a false teacher,and to have to rej ect his
doctrines,when those whom you have loved most taught
you to revere him as the best and greatest of beings . But
there are now mothers,in the homes of the highest families
in the land,who teach their children to bow their knees to
Jesus,once an infant
,
“ meek and mild .
” Even of thosewhose parents are yet unbelievers in Christianity , we maycherish hepe . The reply of the Déwa Nilama, when ourgood bishop recently addressed an assembly of chiefs and
priests at the pavilion in Kandy, is worthy of grateful
record . I have no doubt,” he said, “ that the next
generation will be likely to embrace Christianity, seeing
that my own son , who was educated in a Christian school,is now a Christian .
”
The cross must triumph , whenever it is upheld in its
S implicity, by men who are willing to be nothing in its
APPENDIX.
Note A. Page 23 . Pali the root of all languages .Sé Magadhi mula bhasa,Nare. ya yadikappika,Brahmano chassutalapa,Sambuddhachapi bhésaré.
Note B . 55 . Buddha acknowledges the power of theRishis .
Idang w atwana Matango,Isi sachchaparakkamo,Antalikkasmifi pakkami,Brahmananafi udikkhatan .
Jdta/fa Wannand .
Note C . Page 80 . The Sakw alas are in Sections of three .
LOkantarikati tinu an tinu an chakkawalanafi antareekeka lékantarikahéti ; tinnaI
'
I sakata chakkanafi pattananwa annyamannyanafi ahachcha t
’
hapitanafi majhhé Okasowiya.
Ma/zdpaddna Suttawannand .
Note D . Page 80. The infiniteWorlds known to Buddha .
Wisayakkhettafipana anantaparimanésuhi chakkawalésuyanyan Tathagato Akafikhati tafitafi janati .
Sdra Sangaha. Wisuddhi Magga.
APPENDIX.
Note E . Page 81 . The size of Maha Meru.
Sinéru bhikkhaw é pabbatarajachaturasiti i anasahssani
ayaménachaturasiti i anasahassaniw ittharéna chaturasiti
i anasahassani mahasamuddé ajjhogalho chaturasitii a
nasahassani mah’
asamuddaachchuggato .
Satta Snrynggamans Suttanta.
Note F . Page 81. The colour of Maha Méru .
Tassapana Sinéruno pachinapassafi rajatamayantasmatassa pabhaya ajjohttathafi tassati disayafi smuddodakafi
khirafi wiya pannyayati dakkhinapassafipana indanila
manimayafi tasma dakkhinadisaya samudd édakafi yébhuy
yéna nilawannanhutwapannyayati tatha akasan.
Sdm Sangaha. Wisudd/nMaggot. Jindlankdra.
Note G . Page 82 . The size of the Sakwala.
Ekan chakkawalafi ayamato w ittharatécha i ananafi
d wadasasatasahassani chatuttifisa satani pauuyasau cha
i anani . Parikkhépato.
I I
Sabban sata sahas sani,o o
Chattiflsa parImandalan,
Dasachéwa sahassani,
Addhuddhani satanicha.
Wisuddhi Margga.
No te H. Page 82 . The seven C ircles of Rock .
Ete satta mahasélé.
Sinérussa samantaté .
Sara Sangaha. mand/nMagga. Jz'
ncilan/fdm .
232 APPENDIX.
Note I . Page 84 . The seven Seas .
Sinéru Yugandharad inafi antare S idanta samuddénama
honti .S tirs Sangaha. IVz
'
sndd/nMaggot. Jindlankdm .
Note J . Page 84. The rays pass from Maha Meru to theSakwala rock .
Tatahi pubbadakkhinapasséhi nikkihantarajatamanirasmiyo ékatéhutwa samuddapitthéna gantwa chakkaw éla
pabbatafi ahachcha titthanti .
Sdm Sangaha Jindlankdm.
Note K . Page 85 . The thickness of the Worlds of Stone ,Earth, Water, and Wind .
Dwé satasahassani,
Chattari nahutanicha,
Ettakafi bahalatténa,
Sankhatayafi wasundhara.
Chattarisatasahassani,
Attéwanahutanicha,
Ettakafi bahalatténa,Jalan
'
watepatitthitan .
Nawasatasahassani,
Malato nabhamuggato,
Satthinchéwasahassani,
Esa lOkassa santthiti .
Note L . Page 85 . The distance from Maha Méru toJambud ipa.
Sinérupabbatapassatopatthayayéwa Jumbudipamajjhandw ésatasahassani ékunasitisahassani atthasatani satthiyé
janani, Jambud ipamajjhato patthaya yawa chakkawalapabbatan
'
tawa lénasagaro dw ésatasahass z’
mi ékunasitisa
hassani atthasatani satthiyéjanani . Jénd lan/edra.
I
234 APPENDIX .
Note Q . Page 89. The Sun shines upon three Continentsat once .
Ewan'
w icharantéchaEkappahérénatisd dw ipésu alokankaronti . Sam S angaha.
Note R. Page 89. The size of R 'ahu,and his seiz ure of
the Sun and Moon .
Ewan mahiddhiké ewan mahanubhaw é chandimasuriyé
kin Rahu gilatiti ; ama gilati ; Rahu ssahi attabhawomahauchchanténa atthayéjanasatadhikanichattariyojanasahasSani . S utra Sangaha.
Note S . Page 91 . The waters of the Ocean and the sizeof the IVaves .
Ewan santthitassa tassa hettha chattalisayOJanasahas
samatté thane udakan'
machchéhi chalati upari tawatake
yéwa thané udakan,
waténa chalati majjhé chatuyéjanasahassamatté thane udakan
,
nichchalan'
titthati ; tasmink
k hOpanamahasamuddé mahindaw ichinama satthiyéjananiuggachchati pOranaw ichinama chattalisai ani uggach
chati . Scira Sangaha.
Note T . Page 91 . The size of Ananda and other fishes .
Anando timindo ajjharOho mahatimiti ime chattaro
machchayéjanasahassika.
S cim Sangaha.
Note H. Page 91 . The size of Jambud ipa.
Jambudipépana chatusahassay0 j anappamano padéso tadupabhégiyasattanan
’
punnyakkhaya udekéna ajjOthathosamuddéti sankhangato ; tisahassayéjanappamané manussawasanti ; tisahassayéjanappamané himawapatitthito .
Scim Sangaha.
APPENDIX . 235
Note V . Page 95 . The swiftness of the lions in Himalawana .
Tatiyanpana sihanadan’nad itwa ténéwasaddhin
’ tiyo
janatthane panyyayati tii anan’
gantwaniwattitwathito
attanowa nadassa anunadan’sunati ; ewan
’sighéna jaw éna
pakkamati .Angntmm N ikdga Wannand .
Note W. Page 96 . The size of the Jambu-tree .
Himawatiyéwa patitthitassa yassa anubhawéna ayan’
Jambud ipéti wucchati tan’ mulato yawach agga i anasatappamanan. Sdm Sangaha .
Note X. Page 98 . The extent to which Buddh a’s voicecould be heard .
Akan’khamano Ananda Tathagato tisahassi mahasahassi
lékadhatun’sarénaw innyapeyya yawatayapanaakan
’kheyyati . Angnttam Ni/tdg/a.
Note Y . Page 99 . The extent of the Universe .
Gamanén ahan’ lokassa antan’papunissamiti . sOkhoahan’
Bhanté annyatréwa asita pita khayita Sayitaannyata uchcharapassawakammaannyatraniddakilamathapatiw inédana
wassa satayuko wassa sataj iw i wassa satan’
gantwa ap
patwana lokassa antan’ antara kalakato .
Angnttam N z'
kdga.
Note Z . Page 163 . The non-existence of the Soul .
In consequ ence of the importance of this subj ect, and
the singularity of the teachings of Buddha respecting it,I insert an extract from the writings of the late Rev. D .
J. Gogerly . The rare powers of mind possessed by mygifted predecessor and lamented friend, were never seen to
236 APPENDIX .
greater advantage than when seeking to unravel the intricate web of Buddhist metaphysics . His discoveries tookthe priests by surprise ; but there are none of authoritywho now di spute his conclu sions . I take this opportunityof stating, that I am indebted to the same source for thequotations I have made from the Pirit . It is much to belamented
,that so far as my search has extended, I have not
been able to find among the papers he has left, any thatare so connected or perfect as to be available for publication .
From Budha’
s description of the khandas, transmigration, in the ordinary sense of the word, is impossible . Thismay also be inferred from a passage in the comment onthe Sanyutto discourses . The commentator mentions fiveOpinions as belonging to the u chédaditthi , or school ofphilosophy which teaches that death is the termination ofexistence . The opinions are, (I) that rupa,material organiz ation
,constitutes the soul ; (2) that wedana, sensation, is
the soul ; (3 ) that saunya, perception , is the soul ; (4) thatsankhara, thought, is the sou l ; and (5 ) that w innyana,consciousness, is the sou l . These five opinions could onlyhave been attributed to the annihilation school on thisprinciple
,that Budha taught that each and all of the five
enumerated khandas cease and determine at death .
This further appears from his definition of death,which
among other things he states to be antaradhanan’
,a dis
appearance,and khandanan’
bhédo, breaking up of thekhandas
,a dissolution of the system ; and even if bhédo
should be translated separation, and not dissolu tion, theresult would be the same, for we have seen the khandas tobe so mutually dependent that their separation into individual khandas would be identical w ith the cessation oftheir ex istence, excepting the body, which speedily is dissolved after the other khandas are removed from it. It
238 APPENDIX .
I have correctly translated w édagu , by the words liting soul.But the king had used the same word before, in a discussionon sensations and perceptions
,and there the priest asks,
What is this w édagu ? The king replied,‘ that inward
life,j iw o, which sees figure by the eye, hears sound by the
ear,smells odour by the nose
,tastes flavour by the tongue,
tou ches objects with the body, and knows circumstances bythe mano
,consciousness : thus explaining what we mean
by the word soul, a living conscious being, who acts throughthemedium of the organs of sense . In further explanationhe adds , ‘ even as I sit in this palace and view externalobj ects through any window I please to look out of, so thew édagu looks through the window of the eye, of the nose,etc . ’ The priest denies the existence of such a w édagu orsou l, and among other reasons states, that if what the kingsaid were true, the w édagu, or inward soul, might hear withits nose and smell with its eyes . Whatever potency maybe in the priest’s reasoning
,this is clear, by w édagu the
king meant the soul, and that the priest denied that anysuch thing was received upon transmigration .
“ The king enqui res further,
‘ Is there any thing (orbeing, satto) which goes from this body to another body ?
’
No, great king .
’ If, then, my Lord Nagasena, there beno departure from this body to another body
,certainly there
will be a deliverance from the consequence of Sin .
’ Thisconsequ ence the priest denies
,explaining it by the Mango
metaphor, and using the same words he had spoken before,viz . by this namariipa actions are performed, good or bad,and by those actions another namar i
'
Ipa commences ex
istence .
’
But Budha denies the ex istence of a soul,or any thing
concerning which a manmay say, This is (I) , myself ; and (2 )states that what by accommodation may be called the man
is ever fluctuating, never at two given periods the same,
APPENDIX . 289
although not properly different . Of this peculiar doctrineof identity I will endeavour to give a brief explanation .
The follow ing is a close translation of part of a discoursein the Sanyutto division . The soul
,Priests
,is variously
considered by some recluses and Bramins, but they all regard it as united with the five khandas or with one of thefive. What are the five ? The sensual and unlearned manconsiders (1) body to be the soul, or (2) that the soulpossesses corporiety, or (3) that body emanates from thesou l, or (4) that the sou l resides in the Or theyregard (5 ) sensation to be the soul, or (6) that the soulpossesses sensation
,or (7) that sensation emanates from the
soul, or (8 ) that the sou l resides in the sensations . Or theyregard (9) perception to be the soul, etc . Or they regard
(13) thought to be the soul, etc. Or they regard (17)consciousness to be the soul
,etc .
, (making 20 opinions) .In consequence of these considerations they come to theconclusion
,
‘I am ’
(asmi) . Now,priests, I am is the state of
having the soul . The five organs, (indriyéni) namely, the
organ of the eye,of the ear, of the tongue, and of the
body are conceived (in the womb or otherwise . ) There isconsciousness (mano ) there is dhamma (the three khandasof sensation
,perception
,and thought ) there is the base of
wisdom (w ijja dhatu . ) The unlearned and sensual man
being affected by the sensations resulting from ignorance ,thinks I am’
this is I —But concerning these the learned
Thus explained in the Comment : he considers body to be the soul ; l.o.
IS there any body ? that is I , i s there any I , that is body ; body and soul arenot divers (adwayang, not two . ) The sonlp ossesscs corp orz
'
ety z'
e. taking thesoul to be immaterial
,he regards it as being body-possessing, as a tree 15
Shadow-possessing . B ody emanates from the soul ; i .e. regarding the sou l tobe immaterial he thinks that body emanates from it , as odour emanates from aflower . That the soul res z des in the body i .e. taking the soul to be immaterialhe regards it as residing in the body, as a jewel resides in a casket . I neednot add, all these views are declared to be heterodox.
240 APPENDIX .
disciple of Budha being separated from ignorance andobtaining w isdom, does not think I am,
or this is I .
’
The following formula is used by him repeatedly in connection with each of the five khandas, and twelve ayatanas ,which two classifications embrace everything that is anintegral part of the man, or corporeal . I shall only quoteit in connection with rI
'
Ipa, but it is used verbatim respecting the others ; rupan bhikkhaw é anitchang, yadanitchangtang dukkhang, yang dukkhang tadanatta, yadanattatangnétang mama, nésohamasmi, naméso atta . Body
,priests
,
is impermanent ; is anything impermanent, that is sorrow
(substantially and naturally so) ; is anything sorrow thatis not the soul (not atta, the self ) is anything not the self,that (t.e. that rupa
,or wedana , etc . , etc . ) is not mine, I am
not it,it is not my soul . The same is declared not only of
the 10 corporeal ayatanas but also of mano, consciou sness ,or the principle of consciousness
,dhamma
,the combined
sensations,perceptions
,and reasonings
,whether regarded
as acts or pow ers . Of each and all of them he teaches,I
am not this, this is not my soul, or (namé eso atta) this isnot to me a soul .
In a discourse addressed to a person named Sena he is ,if possible, more definite : he says, If there be any organi z ed form, sensation , perception, thought or consciou sness,past, future, or present, internal or external, great or small,remote or proximate , of all it should be clearly and dis c
tinctly known, This is not mine , I am not it, it is not to me
a Soul . The learned disciple of Budha understanding this ,is weaned from attachment to body
,sensation
,perception ,
thought and consciousness . The Ceylon Friend , vol. ii .No . 5 .
INDEX
Caste, xxiv .,xxxiv .
,9,12
,49 ; in
Ceylon,14.
Ceylon,its language, 20 ; i ts alpha
bet, 60 ; vis ited by Buddha, 64 ;introduction of Buddhism into
,
xxvi . , 66 , 76 ; geology of, 147.
Chandala,an outcaste
,10, 49 .
Chronology,Buddhist
, 72 , 76 ; differcnces in
, 78 .
Commentaries on the Sacred Books,xxv . , 66 , 68 , 195 .
Conception,16 1 .
Continents,the four great, 85, 89
Convocations, the three great , xxu . ,
xxviii .
,192 .
Creation, 171 .
Dewa, a deity, an inhabitant of oneof the heavens, xxviii ., 6 , 8, 52,
Déwadatta, a relative and opponentof Getama, xxx .
Dharmma, the tru th , the religioussystemof Getama, v.
,xxvu .
, xlviii .,
Dhyz’
ina,a mystic rite, xlvi ., 178 .
Earth, 100 .
Earthquakes, 86, 233 .
Eclipses,89, 1 17.
Evi l,the cause of
, IV.
Existence,former states of, 142 ;
present, 159 ; how produced, 16 1causes of its continuance, 167 ; itscessation, 169 .
Fa Hian, a Chinese traveller, xxx .,
78 , 200 , 206 .
Farrar’s Bampton Lectures,quoted,
xxxiv .,xlii .
Fire worship, 204 .
Fishes,their size
,91, 123, 234 .
Ganges,93, 129 , 140 .
Gogerly, D . J.
,quoted
,60, 109 , 141,
Heresies , xxvi i . , xxix.,68 .
H imalayas,2 1, 42, 9 1, 94, 126, 133 .
H induism,xxiii .
,liv .
, 11 , 29 .
Jambu , a fabulous tree, 95 , 130, 235 .
Jambudipa, the continent inhabi tedby men, xxix .
, 85 , 9 1 , 1 16 , 125 ,
Jatakas referred to,xx ix .
,49
,208.
Jatimala, quoted, 10,Jinalankara, quoted, 84
, 85 , 87,23 1 .
Kacch'
ayano, a grammarian, 23 .
Kalpa, keppo, a cycle, 144, 2 1 1 .
Kantako, a fabulous horse, 134.
Kapilawastu, a city on the borders ofNepal
,xiv . , 72, 97, 155 , 206 .
Karmma, ethical action,the acts of
any living existence regarded intheir moral charac ter, xlvi ., xlvii . ,
Kasina, a mystic rite, 178, 212.Khandas , the five elements of existence
,162 .
Kindness, meditation of, xl . , 2 12 .
Korosi Csoma de, a learned Hun
garian, 78 .
Kshatriya, the royal cas te, 10, 13, 44,
47, 208 .
Kumarila’s Tantra-varttika, quota
tion from, 74 .
Kusinara,the city near which Buddha
died,its locality unknown, xii . , xx .
Laidlay’
s Pilgrimage of Fa H ian,
quoted, 79 , 155 .
Languages of India, 17.
Legends of earlyRome, 2 ; ofKalyfma,4 ; of Lomasa Kasyapa, 43 ; ofDrona , 43 ; of M ’atanga
,49 ; of
Réhatissa,98 ; of Soreyya, 160 ;
of Getama and Mahomet compared, 188 .
Lions,94, 133, 235 .
Historical records,66 .
History,test s of the tru th of, 1 .
H iun Thsang, a ChineseTraveller,79 .
India, legends of, 59 ; phi losophiesof, IV.
Intuition of Buddha,xviii ., xxx iv . ,
li .,16 .
INDEX .
Loka, a world, the six inhabited bythe dewas
, the Sixteen superior inhabited by the brahmas
,8 1
,170 ,
2 11 .
Magadhi, the modern Berar, 22, 23 .
Maha Meru, amountain in the centreof the earth
,xxix .
,42
,
197, 23 1 , its existence disproved,101 ; its existence taught byBuddha, 108 .
Mahawanso, an ancient history of
Ceylon, 7, 8, 63, 67, 69, 77, 79,153 .
Mabindo, the priest who introducedBuddhism into Ceylon, xxvi . , 66 .
Man, his original state, 16 ; an
enianation from God,xlv. the
chief iend of, xlv n. an organism,
Matanga Jataka,49 .
Maya, the mother of Getama, xv .,Mendi cant, rules of the, xxxvi .Moon
,87, 112, 233 .
Muir,Dr. J.
,quoted
,11
,12
,19, 30,
32, 34.
Miiller, Max,quoted, 22, 27, 34, 57,
Muni,a sage with supernatural
powers,xv .
, 72 .
Mystic powers,177.
N aga,a snake god, 16 1 .
Nagasena, a priest whose conversations with king Malinda are re
corded in the Malinda Prasna,xlvii . 12 1 .
New Testament, its transmission, 58.
NIrwana (Pali, nibbanan) , nihili sm,
the cessat ion ofbeing, xvi ii . , xxxiv .
Nuga,a fabulous tree, 94, 130 .
O cean, its tides, 86 ; its waves, 90,12 1, 2 34 ; its depth, 9 1, 12 1 .
O ntology of Buddhi sm,142 .
ran,the language inw hich the SacredBooks of the Buddhists are wri tten,
243
Pali,quotations from the, xix.
,230 .
Par
gmatma
, the Supreme Spirit, 25 ,1 0 .
Parsees, xxu .,188 .
Pase-Buddhas,inferior Buddhas, 92 .
Paths, the three, 114, 233 .
Patisambhida,supernatural illumina
tion, 24 .
Phoeni cians,60, 62 .
Philosophy,Greek, li . Hindu,
xxxii . , xlv .Pirit
,a sort of exorcism,
1 18,212 .
Pitakas, the Sacred Books of the
Buddhists, vii ., xxii. , 66 ; the age
in which they were written, xxiii .,xxv. , 22, 191 their oral transmission, 66, 67, 192 ; their origin,24 ; their extent, 66, 193 .
Pratimoksha, the laws of the priesthood
,xxxvii .
Precepts,the five, 210 the ten, x1.
Priesthood, admission to the, xxxv .Priests, their customs and laws, xxxv. ,xxxvii . , 214 .
Puranas, legends of the Brahmans,xxm.
Pythagoras, lii .,188 .
Rahat,a sage endowed with super
natural powers, xxvi ii . , 41, 136,
Rahu , the asur, 89, 1 17, 234.
Rahula, the son of Gétama, xxx., 137.
Ra
gawaliya, an ancient history ofeylon, 7, 8 .
Rawana, a gi ant king of Ceylon, 6 .
Refuge, the three objects of, 203, 215 .
Rishi,an ancient sage of mystic
power, xxxii ., 26, 33, 41, 55, 173 ,
Rocks,the seven round Maha Meru,
Rodiya, an outcaste, 4 .
Rome, legends of earlv, 2 .
Sacrifi ce, xlix . ,43, 46 .
Sakwala, a system of worlds, 80, 83 ,
Sakya, the family to which GOtamabelonged, xv . , 72, 137.
Sam’
apatti , a mystic rite, 50 .
244
S angha,the collective priesthood
,
Sanskrit, 17, 22, and Pali , 17.
Sera S angaha, quoted, 80 , 85, 88, 89,
Seas , the seven c ircul ar, 82 , 1 10, 232 .
Sekra, the ruler of the heaven Tawu ~
tisa, xxviii ., 28 , 42 , 8 1 , 83, 99 .
Sex, change of, 159, 160 .
S iddhartha, a name of GOtama, xv .,
72 .
Soul,its non-existence
,xliii .
,163
,
Spirit, the Supreme, xxi ii . , liv.
Sramana,an ascetic
,a priest , li i . , 50 .
Srawaka, a hearer, a priest, 97.
Suddhodana, the father o f Gotama,xv .
,48 , 72 .
Sudra , the servile caste, 10 , 13, 17, 47.
SI’
Itra, a di vi sion of the Pitakas, a discourse, vii . , xviii . , 15, 18, 27, 32,
Supanna-raj a
,the king of birds
,135 .
Tathagato, an epithet of Buddha,implying that he came in the sameway as the previous Buddhas, xii .18
,55
,92
,97, 98 , 1 19, 136, 2 13 .
Tennent,Emerson, quoted, 62, 147.
Transmigration,xlvi .
,143
,165 .
INDEX .
Turnour, G .,on Buddhism
, 70, 76 ,
Universe, extent of, 97, 99, 235 ;revolutions of
,175 .
Upadana, the cleaving to sensuousobjects
,xlvi .
,167, 172 .
Upasaka, a lay devotee, 47.
Uruwela,the forest visited by GOtama,
xli .
Vaisya , the agricultural caste, 10,
13 , 47.
Vedas, the sacred books of the Brahmans
,xxii .
,xxiii . , xxiv . , xxxi i .
xxxix . , 17, 59,199
their age, 27 origin, 30 ; authors
44 ; authority, 74 .
ernacular, use of the, xxxv n
Was,a festival , xxxviii .
Wihara, a Buddhist temple, 7.
Wilson,Professor
,quoted, 28, 34, 35 ,
37, 63, 71 , 79 , 205 , 206 .
Wisuddhi Margga, quoted, 68, 96 .
Woman,xxiv . , 30, 209 .
Worlds,the four, 85 , 120, 169, 232 .
Writing, 7, 5 6, 59 .
Yasodhara, the wife of Gétama, xv .
Zend lore, xxu . , 17, 188 .
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